Collette (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whatsupcroc) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
exsiliumlogs2013-06-07 11:05 pm
whatsupcroc) wrote in exsiliumlogs2013-06-07 11:05 pm
(open) days go by and still i think of you
Date & Time: June 4th - 9th
Location: Initiative Hospital
Characters: Collette & Open!
Summary: Shenanigans while ill at the hospital.
Warnings: Hospital gowns, illness, trauma, silliness.
[ June 4th-7th ]
Her fever spikes the most during her first few days in the hospital. Collette hesitated to tell anyone; there was little to do but wait it out, and she was more preoccupied with the coughing when she was awake and aware of her surroundings than she liked.
She's even abstained from using the network that often, having difficulty concentrating on the bright screen.
What she didn't expect took her, and several nurses, and any potential visitors, by surprise. When the fever ran too hot, and her delusions started edging toward frightening territory, Collette reacted.
Once, where there'd been a sick girl, there appeared a crocodile. Mouth opened, it hissed and growled at everything that moved in the room, one lash of its tail taking out the IV pole. The privacy curtain is doomed to be half torn down while Collette isn't taking charge of the reptilian brain: it was one very frightened crocodile reigning over a disheveled hospital bed.
[ June 7th-8th ]
She had the crocodile under control when she found herself having episodes of coming to while morphed golden retriever or coyote, hiding under chairs, or wandering the hall with her hospital gown trailing awkwardly between her legs.
Twice she ended up in the cafeteria. Collette really didn't quite understand how she got there.
[ June 9th: after this ]
On the 9th, the fever broke, but it wasn't something she noticed. Not after everything else that happened after she escaped to the hospital roof.
Collette was shaking from something entirely unrelated to her illness, even if the shivering could have been attributed to it. She was scared to close her eyes, scared of coughing because it left her vulnerable, tired and sick and scared all around.
This, she decides, Takes the award for royal suckage.
Location: Initiative Hospital
Characters: Collette & Open!
Summary: Shenanigans while ill at the hospital.
Warnings: Hospital gowns, illness, trauma, silliness.
Her fever spikes the most during her first few days in the hospital. Collette hesitated to tell anyone; there was little to do but wait it out, and she was more preoccupied with the coughing when she was awake and aware of her surroundings than she liked.
She's even abstained from using the network that often, having difficulty concentrating on the bright screen.
What she didn't expect took her, and several nurses, and any potential visitors, by surprise. When the fever ran too hot, and her delusions started edging toward frightening territory, Collette reacted.
Once, where there'd been a sick girl, there appeared a crocodile. Mouth opened, it hissed and growled at everything that moved in the room, one lash of its tail taking out the IV pole. The privacy curtain is doomed to be half torn down while Collette isn't taking charge of the reptilian brain: it was one very frightened crocodile reigning over a disheveled hospital bed.
She had the crocodile under control when she found herself having episodes of coming to while morphed golden retriever or coyote, hiding under chairs, or wandering the hall with her hospital gown trailing awkwardly between her legs.
Twice she ended up in the cafeteria. Collette really didn't quite understand how she got there.
On the 9th, the fever broke, but it wasn't something she noticed. Not after everything else that happened after she escaped to the hospital roof.
Collette was shaking from something entirely unrelated to her illness, even if the shivering could have been attributed to it. She was scared to close her eyes, scared of coughing because it left her vulnerable, tired and sick and scared all around.
This, she decides, Takes the award for royal suckage.
no subject
"No," she admits, wheezing a last half laugh, "You're right. It really isn't." Something she's glad for right now. She doesn't even mind that he's the more modest out of the two of them. It's a better balance, she figures, but she's never been properly appreciative of the fact before now.
She's also never been more acutely aware that he cares, and that, more than the embarrassment she also feels, turns her feverish cheeks even more red. She hopes it doesn't show. He's probably not going to look at her face, or any of her that he can avoid, but she just hopes it doesn't have some magical neon-sign like obviousness.
"Um, I can move." She shifts the blanket, feeling cool air on her back as she presses her elbow into the bed and uses her opposite hand to help prop herself up. "If you tug, I can move." I'm not that weak yet, is what she means. I'm not deadweight. I can help. You don't have to worry about taking care of me. It wasn't his job, and she doesn't really want it to be.
She needs to apologize to the nurses. It's scary -- for her, for them -- to have a patient turn into something entirely unexpected without warning.
"I should," she starts, coughing and swallowing. Whatever else she meant to say is left unsaid for now as she keeps herself modest with one hand's grip on the blanket, and keeps herself propped up with the other arm. She hopes Caesar just trusts her on this one. If he tugs, she'll move, section by section. Between the two of them, they can pull these stupid sheets out.
no subject
Her true meaning isn't entirely lost on him, but only because he had thought of it beforehand. It's why he asked what she wanted to do, not just deciding on his own. If she said she can move, then that's what they'll do.
"Okay, I'm going to start pulling them," he cautions her. He finds a better spot to grip the sheets at, then does just that, slowly trying to pull the covers out from under her. He trusts she'll figure out how to help with that as he does.
no subject
Ideally, she'd have both hands for this. She's concentrated on her breathing being even, shallow as it is, to reduce the risk of another coughing fit. Her arms are stating to shake from exertion, and that irritates her, because she does so much more on a regular basis that makes this look like child's play.
She knows it's just for now, but she also knows if this lasts out the week, she's going to have dues to pay on the far side of it.
"Close your eyes, please," she says once she knows the biggest point of contention lies under her hips and buttocks. There's no easy way to move herself off, not without using both arms for leverage. She'll have to let go of the lap blanket to do that. With Caesar warned, she waits for his compliance before dragging herself up and over with a calculated roll to one side, shoving the sheets past the center of much of her supposed balance. It takes two tries to push up into a seated position again after the fact, let alone pull her legs closer once she was properly sitting.
Taking the time to adjust the small blanket around her, coughing again but with less severity than earlier, she waits to give Caesar the okay. One hand preserves her modesty by clasping the blanket in place; the other holds on to her shins to keep her legs from pulling entirely along with the sheets. Without the handlebar at the small of her back, she'd have fallen over trying to support this awkwardness.
"Okay, see if you can pull them all the way out now." She aims for her voice to sound chipper; it falls closer to cheerfully helpful, as if this were some sort of adventure she's helping out on.
no subject
He doesn't react immediately once she speaks up again, even after the sound of movement has settled. The tension on the sheet does seem to be gone, but he can't know without looking first and he'd rather not blindly pull anything.
"Um, does that mean I can look now...?"
no subject
Yet in looking up at his face, studying him like his question required the extra time and consideration she was giving it for reasons other than her own internal misery that made focusing on outside details alternately difficult and all too easy, she found that she was amused.
"You're blushing," she noted, as if she hadn't been, both surprised and utterly unsurprised. She sounded curious, erring on the side of wondering. Collette takes a moment to remember he'd asked a question she needed to respond to. "I mean, yeah, it's safe!" Her fist tightened in the fabric of her blanket. She balanced herself more purposefully, pressing backward just enough to be reminded there was something there to catch her if she fell. "I'm all covered Nothing to worry about here."
no subject
The entire situation is awkward, okay! She could have at least let him blush in peace! He finishes his grumbling as he turns back to look again, checking the sheets for any further tense spots before pulling the rest of it free and off of the bed. It piled down, half onto the floor, but not for long. He reels it all back up into his arms and, taking hold of two corners, went ahead with tossing the sheet out, up, and over the bed and Collette both.
Chances are it won't all land over her, but it'll be enough of the way over her legs that she'll be free to figure out how to arrange the blanket and the sheets on her own.
"Right. There." That's done! Now she won't freeze! Yeah. "I should go and, uh, find those nurses now."
no subject
Sure, she was indecent. It happened around here sometimes! Which she figured he knew, it just wasn't him usually having to deal with it. Hence at his not so suave announcement of his intentions with the nurses, Collette collected herself enough to smile. Her huff of laughter was brief and shallow. She didn't want to trigger an early coughing fit.
"Let 'em know you went all Caesar, Crocodile Wrestler for them. I'm sure they'll love that," she said, smiling in amusement as she envisioned the looks they'd give him. Her eyes traveled up to the ceiling, examining the light fixtures and the tiles. "And say I'm sorry. I'll tell them that, too, but I don't know if that won't happen again."
She resolved to herself it wouldn't, but it was an unknown, and frightening, factor.
no subject
Not that the nurses would know.
Since she had turned into a giant lizard and...
Nevermind. He settled on shrugging and trying to recover whatever nonchalant look he could from the moment.
"I barely ever apologize myself, what makes you think I'm going to deliver someone else's apology?" He shook his head and turned to go. "I'll tell that running away and not returning at all isn't acceptable. Or even sending someone else! Do they even know how to do their jobs?"
no subject
She looked up as Caesar turned away to leave. She figured she probably wasn't supposed to find it reassuring as he continued to complain, but it was exactly that.
So she exhaled sharply, a sort of amused sound that was followed by her coughing. It's more congested this time, for all its brevity. "I'm thinking they weren't expecting to be zoo handlers when they showed up at work." Collette can't hold it much against them. Her own mother would have been freaked at first, though she would have checked back in to figure out what was going on, and would have at least stopped to close the doors. "Don't chew them out too badly!"
She wouldn't mind if he did.