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

[whatsupcroc]

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.

Comments

[commentboxtroll]

"Of course I am!" Caesar really hoped she wouldn't notice. Oh well. "You're... you know. Indecent."

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."

[whatsupcroc]

His aim worked well enough, though she made a strangled noise somewhere in the back of her throat when moving her supporting arm to catch on to some of the mass of sheets and blanket he'd tossed back on the bed. Consequently, she teetered with her balance off center, until she pulled on the sheets herself and slammed her fisted hand back onto the bed's surface. She caught her balance, determined, and distracted from the whole of his blushing for now.

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.

[commentboxtroll]

In retrospect, he should have pulled the sheets up for her, but... It didn't matter now. The implication that he wrestled any crocodiles gained a look torn between wanting to find it funny and wanting to be embarrassed again, since that would imply--

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?"

[whatsupcroc]

Collette was ignorant of causing any potential embarrassment as she joked to make herself feel better about something not all that funny in immediate context. She adjusted the sheets and blanket, pulling and tucking. The nurses would do a better job down around her feet when they got back. Or when they changed shift, whatever came first and made them forget fastest.

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.