exsiliumlogs | (open) days go by and still i think of you

Entry tags:

(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.

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Unaware of similarities to his past with a girl by the same name, Collette twists an ear around to focus on the sound of his voice. She continues her act, the guide dog to the hilt, no matter how she seemed a little unsteady and slow. It might have as well been her need to keep pace with the smaller stride of a child.

< That's good, think. So what is it? >

With how he tenses next to her, she wonders if it isn't something more polite to hold back on. It was unfair to force people to trudge back through their personal traumas for her own edification. Most the time.

Usually people would leave it at that, take the hint as the atmosphere tenses (little Colette had) but not this Collette and somehow that doesn't surprise Lavi at all. She's the nosy sort, just like him. Although now he's even less certain of how to answer. There's a pause as he contemplates before eventually settling on the simple truth.

"I can't say."

Because he's certain 'it's a long story' wouldn't work on her and even though this answer is bound to raise more questions, it's just how it is. Bookman might not be here to punish him when he shares sensitive Bookman clan information, but that doesn't mean that he should. If anything, without the old man ever present by his side to correct him when he blabs too much, he would have to learn how to restrain himself even more.

He pats her fur in a silent apology.

It's not a perfect answer. Collette is curious, but as far as answers go, he picked one that's hard to be stubborn over, especially with someone his apparent age. She didn't have to like it in order to understand it.

Brushing lightly against him, she allows herself to wear a canine grin. The one nice thing about Thought Speak, she thinks, aside from it not threatening her into coughing, is how malleable the mental tone could be when she concentrates on it.

< Can't say much to that, can I? Ah, well. > She keeps her disappointment light and humorous. She's clumsier now than usual, moving her muzzle to nose gently at his midsection. < If that ever changes, you know where to find me! > Here. She hopes that holds true, for many selfish reasons, and a few she likes to think are less selfish.

They turn down a hall, and there's the elevator, waiting at the junction.

Despite his answer being a firm one that doesn't allow much room for argument, she still could have pressed on and tried to persuade him so the fact that she doesn't is something he can silently appreciate. It's a little odd, being on the other side of nosiness for once. It makes him understand the disappointment though and he can't fault her for that.

He manages a smile as she noses him and he moves his hand to give her a scratch behind the ears. "Sure." It's an easy lie, one he's told many times before. 'You can tell me when you're troubled' is something he's heard many variations of, but it's an offer he's very unlikely to ever take up. No one has to know how he's supposed to not care about the people around him.

"You're a nice person." From what Lavi can tell she doesn't have ulterior motives with that offer, not like him, so he means it sincerely. With the elevator in sight and no one around, he deems it safe enough to let go of her.

She wonders if sure is as noncommittal an answer where he's from as it can be where she's from. It's not much of a thought. She's distracted by the elevator looming ahead.

She laughs, looking at the elevator call buttons and waiting to see if Lavi would be a pal and hit the one pointing up for them. He seemed to like pushing buttons. < You know, most people just call me nosy! I'll take nice any day of the week. > Collette figures how true it was depended on who was asked, and how honest they were being. She doesn't view her own lack of ulterior motivation as being all that different.

< Thanks for the compliment! > Kids wouldn't have it paired with a slight, she figures, and even if he did, she would choose to ignore it. There was rarely a need to take someone's hurtful words or actions to heart, particularly when they were throw away.

Not that she thinks Lavi is doing anything of that sort.

If he wasn't already feeling so worn out, he might have put more weight and assurance behind his reply, but as it is he just wants to get away from the subject (namely him) as soon as possible.

She doesn't have to wait for long before he's standing on his tiptoes and pushing the up button. There's a certain kind of satisfaction to be found by hitting buttons, he's discovered, and the risk of anything terrible happening when pushing one isn't as likely here as back home with the Science Division. He glances back to her as he lowers himself down onto his heels, blinking as if she said something weird. "I don't think there's anythin' wrong with nosy. I'd say curiosity makes the world go round."

Although a certain tiredness is seeping into his voice (excitement from before finally catching up with him) it also holds sincerity and he shrugs casually at her words of thanks.

"I'm just saying how it is, you're very kind."

She tilts her head to the side, mouth closing. < You're nosy too, aren't you? > She laughs, the only unfettered sound she can offer in the moment. Collette cranes her head back to stare up at the numbers, watching lights ding by each floor in a steady progression, then halt on the floor above them. Another minute for them to catch their elevator.

She doesn't know what to say to his repetition. He's a cute kid. Keeping quiet might be enough.

She doesn't feel like she's that kind deep down. She's just not motivated to ruin other people's lives; she didn't reach out with pure intentions. Helping others meant company for herself. Being part of a team meant belonging, being important.

Less of a chance of being abandoned out of hand. Less of a chance to be lonely.

It's a welcome relief as the elevator dings before her, her mind contemplating even as the fuzzy heat that invades her head in waves creeps back in. She doesn't think it's supposed to work like this, this being ill. But she has no one to ask, and no experience to weigh it against.

Still, good cheer bubbles up through everything, and she steps close to Lavi again, unasked for and uncommenting support when they can move forward.

There's a chuckle at that, but unlike Collette it results in coughing for him. It takes a moment before he has it under control and he can speak again, albeit more hoarsely than before.

"Yeah, I am. So I'm not one to talk."

That would be hypocritical. It would also be if he pressed on, so he doesn't and lets silence fall regarding the subject of Collette's kindness. She'd been there when he'd arrived, taken him to his apartment and then treated him to hot chocolate when she didn't have to do any of that. She could have just as easily pointed him in the right direction and left it at that. She is kind.

If asked, he would say company is a pure intention. It's not the same as using people to gain as much information as possible and his entire persona was built around just that: gathering information. Being frivolous and friendly so people opened up to him more easily. His fate as Bookman's successor.

When she moves closer again, Lavi puts one hand on her back almost automatically as they step inside the elevator together. He's turning to press the button of the floor they need to go to when movement catches his eye and he finds himself glancing over. Right there at the end of the hall they traversed is the nurse who was chasing him before.

"Crap!" He's frantically hitting buttons, first their floor and then the button to close the doors. "C'mon, close, close!"

Collette tenses, her ears pricking forward to focus on the bull-like charge of the nurse who'd lost Lavi earlier. "You!" the woman cries out, shifting her weight around and rushing for the elevator doors. "I've found you, you rascal, now where are you going with that --"

She drew up short as the doors were near to closing. "Wolf?" The word sounds foreign on her tongue. The canines of the outlands were rarely of one recognizeable breed. Thus her moment of concern in trying to identify Collette's species works to their advantage.

Collette laughs along a mental connection, leaping up on her hind legs in a brief show of spirited amusement. < Coyote! > she calls back. < Not a wolf. Much more clever! >

Of course, with Lavi's frantic button mashing, Collette comes down only to hear the elevator ding for the floor right above them. Um.

< ... You don't think the stairs are close to the elevator, do you? >

No one is as frightening as the Head Nurse back home, but Lavi has to admit that this particular annoyingly persistent nurse comes very close. Actually, with how terrifying said Head Nurse has always been, one would think Lavi would have learned his lesson about sneaking out of hospital rooms by now, but nope. Not in the slightest.

He's very grateful for Collette's current form even if he still doesn't quite understand what morphing is all about, but at this point he doesn't even care. He's just glad it distracted the nurse enough to make her falter. Rather than joining Collette in her jubilation, Lavi's stumbling back into the corner where he slumps and breathes a hearty sigh of relief. "She's so scary!"

However the relief doesn't last long, it's instantly replaced with dread when Collette poses her question and he hesitates.

"I don't know? Let's . . . Let's be ready to bolt, just in case." He really hopes it's not the case, neither of them were in the optimal condition to get any hurried bolting done.

The second floor arrives. With the doors rolling back to their merry little ding, Collette tenses, looking straight out.

An older man leaning on someone who might be his son stares back, looking first at Collette, in all her canine glory, then over to Lavi. He coughs, startled; his son looks dumbstruck.

"Are you quite all right?" asks the older gentleman, voice thick with congestion. "This is your furry companion?"

Dogs are a rarity, largely due to their expense and tendency toward mutation over the decades. The nurse didn't appear to be in sight. Collette doesn't expect that to last, so she asks, pitching her voice in something like Lavi's tone, < Going up, sir? >

Since no one would think the dog speaks, and sometimes people are ventriloquists. Totally. Especially not now, as it lowers its muzzle and scratches at it with a forepaw. She wags her tail enthusiastically to continueto portray herself as soft, fuzzy, cuddly, and sweet.

< Sorry, > she shoots Lavi on a private mental line. < We need to keep going! >

Rather than ready to bolt like he himself suggested, Lavi is more ready to scream than anything so when the doors roll back and a hint of a figure could be seen he gasps and—

Promptly starts coughing as his throat doesn't agree with the sudden inhaling of that much air. Luckily it's not the nurse or otherwise they'd have been done for or well, he would have been. He's bend over slightly, waving his hand dismissively and nodding at both questions simultaneously, so his face can't quite be seen when Collette speaks for him. Another lucky coincidence.

"R-right!" Whether that's in response to Collette or the older man, who knows, but he can swear he can hear the familiar hurried clacking of heels so he's lurching forward to tug the old man and his son inside. "Let's go up!"

All four of them ride upward, the older man and his son giving Lavi strange looks.

"Nice patch," the son says, after they both stare down at their childish companion and his tail-wagging down. "The dog's yours?"

Floor three dings, Collette's head swinging around to point at the doors. They slowly roll back, revealing a different nurse and a patient in a wheelchair.

< It's our floor. I think? > She hesitates, no longer so sure.

"Thanks," Lavi replies with a smile that comes more easily at that, but then hesitates slightly at the question. "Uh yeah, she is."

Wow, awkward.

The sight of a nurse is plenty distracting though and he's about ready to hide behind someone's legs when he realizes it's not the nurse who's been chasing him. There's a moment of relief and then Collette's words catch his attention. He glances up at the floor number, eye widening—

"Ah, it's our floor! Goodbye!" He waves hastily at the father and his son as he darts (rather wobbly) out of the elevator before the doors can close again, urging Collette with him.

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(open) days go by and still i think of you

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