Atonement

Participants:

elisabeth_icon.gif trask_icon.gif darius_icon.gif abby_icon.gif

Scene Title Atonement
Synopsis Hospital for Liz brings visits from Trask and Norton for company, and from Abby to atone.
Date January 13, 2009

St. Luke's Hospital


Trask entrs with a potted plant, checking on Elisabeth, he looks somewhat concerned.

The guard on the door outside has a list of people who are supposed to be let in, and Norton's name is on it. So he's allowed into the room. Elisabeth is still asleep, and in the light of day some 8 hours after the fact, she looks…. like hell. The right side of her face is a vivid, swollen purple/black color, her eye is swollen shut, her lip is split on that side. Her left arm is casted from fingertips to neck and in traction. It's not pretty. When the door opens, her blue eyes sluggishly open to see who it is, and she smiles sleepily - or tries to. She's obviously on the good pain meds. "Hey," she murmurs.

Trask smiles and walks over, putting his hand in hers, he is getting by on a cane now, getting around a little better for short periods at least. "So I see you inherited my old room."

Elisabeth holds his hand with her good hand. She hmmmms quietly, her eyes closing. "Guess so," she replies. When she forces her eyes — well, really her one eye. The right one is barely a slit — again, she asks worriedly, "The message got out, right? 'Bout Teo and Alex?"

Trask nods, "It did….I…should have been there."

Elisabeth barely remembers making the call to Norton, panicked and garbled as it was, that Teo and Alex were in mortal danger from Jessica. And she looks relieved to hear that it did, in fact, get through. "Thank God," she breathes softly. And now there are tears slipping from beneath her lids. "I'm so sorry, Norton. I shouldn't have given them up." She can't reassure him right now that given that they're not actually sleeping together and Liz had no inkling of a threat, there was no reason for his presence to be a given — her brain's sluggish on the drugs. "I told her Teo and Alex, and I told her Sergei." She sounds miserable.

Looking at Trask again, trying not to cry over all this, Elisabeth apologizes once more. Because well…. she feels guilty as hell. And worse yet, now there are boys in blue all over this floor of the hospital, demanding IDs of everyone who comes off the elevator and stuff. 'Officer down' in this city means a good bit — even when the officer in question is Evolved. And Liz has friends from before she came out of the closet too. The guy at the elevator will only give Darius a tiny bit of a hard time — the look on his face is likely enough to deter any real 'gimme your ID so I can check for sure' kinds of stuff. "Will you forgive me?"

Trask leans over and kisses Liz, tenderly, "Nothing to forgive." He then settles into the chair next to her, his hand still in a sling, his leg braced and a cane sitting next to him.

She can't return the kiss, but Liz turns the good side of her face against Trask's when he does it, taking comfort from the touch. "Oh, there's plenty to forgive. Not the least of which is the fact that I underestimated her." Elisabeth shakes her head a little and looks at him seriously. "Norton… I told Will to contact Matt Parkman. I'm turning her in to HomeSec. I thought she could be worked with… if carefully. I've done everything she asked to protect her alter ego, but …. I don't even know what set her off. Why she wanted information on Abby's roommates *or* on Phoenix leadership unless she's looking to burn all of us. I don't…." She closes her eyes, the medication making her have to pause because when she gets agitated and her heart rate starts climbing, it makes her dizzy.

Trask pats her shoulder, "Calm…yoiu can't fix it by worrying about it.

Elisabeth sighs heavily. "You're humoring me. And I hate being humored." She sounds aggrieved, though the edge is taken off by the pain medication. "Norton… have you talked to Abby? I'm worried that Jessica will hurt her." She grimaces, and then has to wince because the expressions on her face are hurting her. A lot. They're grotesque around the massive swelling and purpling on the right half of her whole face.

There's a knock on the door frame and Darius pokes his head in. He has a potted peace lily and a get well balloon in his left hand. "So who do I need to kill?" He asks with a purpose-built smile on his face.

Trask turns to look at the door, he raises an eyebrow. "Seems you have an attractive gentleman caller, and yes I made sure everyone who needs to know, knows."

When the door opens to admit Darius, whatever Elisabeth may have been about to say is swallowed. And she smiles a little for her partner, a travesty of a smile with all the swelling. The right side of her face is swollen and so deep a purple as to be black, her eye swollen shut and her lip split and hugely puffy. The entire left side of her torso appears to be casted and in traction with her left arm up and held in place at that awkward angle. "Sounds like you and Norton should get along nicely." She gestures with her undamaged right hand to Norton. "Norton, this is my new partner Darius Johnson. Darius, my best friend Norton Trask." Her words are somewhat blurry and garbled from drugs and facial damage.

Darius tips his chin to Trask, a grin following the attractive comment. "I'll promise not to hold it against her." Stepping into the room, he puts down the lily on the floor near the guest chair and offers his left hand to Trask. "Pleased to meet you." The balloon has the big yellow smiley face on one side and the other says 'get well soon'. Interestingly, he looks to have penned a bullet hole in the forehead of the smiley with a black felt tip, complete with a red ink blood trail down between the eyes.

Trask some what akwardly takes the hand with his good one. "Forgive me for not getting up. I have heard quite a bit about you."

Elisabeth mms softly and studies the balloon with a puzzled look. But hey… it's amusing enough. Especially in her current drugged state. She stares at it, trying not to laugh cuz it hurts her face… but yet, she giggles.

Darius lifts a brow at the comment by Trask, not insisting on a 'firm' handshake in deference to the man's recovering state. "Oh?" Amused, he glances to Liz. "Nothing but the best, I'm sure. Its alright. I'm used to getting shit." He smirks at the giggles. "From her especially." He steps to her bedside, opposite Trask, and looks down at her. "So. They have you on darvocet or morphine?" He eyes the dripline curiously.

Trask chuckles softly, "I didn't say any of it was negative." He leans back in the chair, to let Liz and Darius talk.

Elisabeth looks up at Darius, pulling her eyes from the smiley-face balloon with the bullet hole in its head. The giggle makes her face grotesque once more — she looks looks sort of like Two-Face, what with all the purple and swelling on one side and the normal on the other. And the giggle is pulling her cheek, which makes it hurt, which means she's giggling at the silly balloon and 'owowowow-ing' with tears because it hurts! Mean partner. "Dunno," she burbles at him cheerfully.

Darius nods somewhat knowingly at Liz' burbled reply and looks across the bed at Trask. "Did I say negative? I just said she gives me a lot of shit. And that's not all bad either." He smiles and finally gives the other man a looking over. "So how long has she been out of the ER?"

Trask sighs, "Less then an hour. She through a fit about them doting over her.

Elisabeth soberly (ha!) puts in her two cents' worth. "I don't give him *too* much shit, Norton. Certainly not nearly as much as I give you. But I did have to give him SOME shit for tellin' me he wanted to see me in a teddy, cuz well… you can't just go be friends with benefits with yer partner!" Her words are starting that ridiculous slur that comes with good drugs. "How's he s'posed to watch yer back if he's busy watchin' yer ass?!"

Darius looks down at Liz as if she just violated some law about the privacy between partner's act. Or maybe he's teasing. "Hey now. A man can still speak truth and not be filleted for it right? Last I heard this was a mostly free country. And its real easy to not watch your ass. Its not /that/ tight. Sheesh." Rolling his eyes at her, he gives her a sweeping indication at her and looks apologetically at Trask. Like, partners, what can you do, eh?

Trask smiles softly, "She does look quite good in a teddy though, especially the pink silk netting one she keeps in her gym bag in case of emergency."

Elisabeth blinks and looks at Norton, rolling her head on the pillow to look at him with a half-grin. She attempts to 'pfft' at him and it winds up sounding more like 'fffffff'. "Pink silk. As if!"

"Pink.. silk?" Darius looks down at Liz and quirks a brow. "Huh. Didn't see that one coming. I'd have figured her for lavender or blue." Folding his arms across his chest, he considers the idea then dismisses it with a shake of his head. "So." He declares. "I suppose I should ask what happened tomorrow when you're not so doped up, huh?"

Trask says, "Oh she has a pretty princess side she hides at work, she's into unicorns, and faeries and white knights. It's kinda sickening if you've ever seen the secret closet in her bedroom."

The men in blue outside the door do thier little shuffle when a somewhat familiar southern womans voice (to some in the room) states her name to them, ABigail Beauchamp, and that she's here to visit and fix Elisabeth up. There is a consultation of a notepad, as one of them scans for Abigails name, before there's a nod. That doens't mean that Abby goes in, quite the opposite, there's a knock at the door, despite voices coming from inside. "Elisabeth?" It's a tired sounding abigail, her drawl deeper than usual.

Elisabeth opens her eyes to look at Norton with a 'you're a dead man' glare. "Norton Trask, you can't tell my partner shit like that!" It's a mumble, though she'd like to shriek. Or… maybe giggle. The giggle wins. "That's a bold-faced lie, and you know it. You haven't even seen my closet!" She turns her eyes to Darius and says with that mildly dopey 'I'll tell you anything' expression, "Oh, not much… fuckin' crazy Evo sociopath that I underestimated majorly came and kicked my ass from here to Sunday cuz she wanted to know who besides the police I work with."

"Oh nice." Darius seems to have let Trask's comment gofor now as he looks at Liz in concern. "So does this walking corpse have a name?" Any further bravado is lost to Abby's arrival and he turns a scrutiny on the female. Maybe women just became the enemy. At least until the enemy has a name. His right hand leaves the bedside rail and stays free. Still, he's not unfriendly in his expression. Just studious.

Trask looks up and sees Abby, "Abby…I didn't mean for you to come right down here….there is a good chance she's watching the hospital to catch you doing just this" He frowns darkly.

Well, that's surprise. Not Darius and his study of her. Abby's far from dangerous looking. Slightly rumpled, cusp of 20 young woman with blonde hair, that looks like she's better off sleeping in a bed, instead of coming into a hospital room. Her jacket's in her arms after a quick look at her persons by those outside, purse over her shoulder. Far from dangerous. It's Norton though that garners the surprise. Especially since she doesn't know how much darius knows. She turns, enough to say thank you to the officers outside before closing the door. There's a polite nod to Darius and then to trask. "Officer trask. Morning. She came already, and went. I have some bruises, nothing more. Elisabeth did a number on her ears though. I didn't know, or I wou… I wouldn't have healed her" The last is offered to Elisabeth. Though what comfort that is considering if she hadn't, Jessica likely would have made her do it. "The sooner I can get you up, the sooner you can do what you need to do, so that I don't need to"

Elisabeth looks toward the door when Abby comes in, and for the first time there is a glimmer of something other than good-natured druggedness in her expression. There's anger. The entire right side of Elisabeth's face is purple-to-black with bruising and swollen to nearly unrecognizable proportions, with an eye swollen shut and her lip split and puffy. Her entire left torso is casted and in traction from neck to waist, her left arm up at that awkward angle. And she says quietly, "Glad to hear you healed her. It'll mean she can come at me again with no trouble when I'm asleep." The words are calm, controlled…. and the wealth of rage behind them is so tightly contained, there's only a hint of it in her tone. It's all in the single eye that pins Abby with laser-bright intensity.

Liz' reaction to Abby's presence, to say nothing of the words passing around, certainly colors Darius' expression. The genial and studious turns a little more aloof. Its not that he looks at her unkindly. More, its a change in his posture. He steps away from the bed so that there's no obstruction between himself and Abby. He gives Trask a questioning look and a vaguely amused phrase. "Old friends?"

Trask smiles and little and slowly attempts to rise from his chair, not that he's exactly in the way, with the leg in the brace and the hand in a sling, it takes a little time, and some creative manuevers with the cane. "Something like that…I should get out of the way…Liz you need anything from the vending machine?"

'He was a customer, where I waitressed" Abby answers Darius. Her stance though, turns submissive under Elisabeth's gaze and the coloring, no matter how small, in her tone. "Your allowed to be angry. I'll fix you, then i'll leave you alone from here on in. Unless you don't want to be fixed, and in that case, i'll leave right now. I'm sorry, that she came after you, I don't exactly know why, and I don't want to know why Elisabeth. I just want to fix you, go home, and" But first, she's going to help trask rise, no heebie jeebies for her when she gets close to him. Just an arm to help him up.

Elisabeth might have far more to say to the younger blond if Darius weren't in the room. She has many many things to talk to Abigail about. But she bites back all of it and says softly, "I'd be much obliged. Cuz right now? I hurt like a son of a bitch." She slants a look at Norton, the pleasant drug haze now a distraction and annoyance. "No, I don't need anything," she replies softly.

Darius doesn't look inclined to go anywhere. He's not even looking at Liz just now. Every so much as hint of a moment is being watched by Darius and he's not being overly subtle about it.

Trask makes his way to the door, "I'll be back shortly….Darius, Abby, either of you need anytihng?" He moves very slowly, leaning on the cane heavily.

"No, thank you Officer Trask. I have some red bull with me" The chair he occupied is pulled up to beside Liz's Hospital bed, not meeting the womans eyes just a nod. She can feel Darius's look, even as she's getting herself comfortable. "I'm not going to hurt her. The opposite actually." Abby's hand is slipped into Elisabeth's good one, careful of the riggamarole Jessica's actions have placed the blonde officer in. When trask is safely away from her, or judging him to be, her free hand holds the dainty simple cross around her neck. "Sacred heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved and preserved throughout the world now and forever. Sacred heart of Jesus pray for us. St. Jude worker of miracles pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us. Thank you St. Jude. Amen" Relief for theblonde flares to life the first line in, coursing through her arm and towards where it needs to be.

Darius doesn't debate the notion of pain or otherwise. "Coffee.. or whatever passes for it. Black. Thanks." he returns to Trask even though his eyes are on Abby the whole time. The prayers.. draw a raise of a brow but he keeps his silence for now. The fingers on his right hand twitch a little.

Elisabeth watches Norton slip out, and she almost tells him to stay. "Don't be long, huh?" she asks him. But she knows he can't be too close for this, too. And even drugged up, she looks at Darius with a faint smile. "Don't go passin' out on me, 'kay?" She lets Abby take her good hand, and after Abby starts to pray, Elisabeth sucks in a breath, letting it out on a sigh. Drugs can do a lot, but the kind of pain relief Abby offers is far more significant. Her hand tightens automatically on Abby's, her anger not making her wish to cut off her nose to spite her face.

on and on it goes, the prayers dropping down to quiet that Darius might get a whisper now and then till abby stops praying, just raising her eyes to take in elisabeth's face, still holding onto the woman. No small talk. She's not in the mood and each passing minute is just wringing her dry of what little energy she did have. But elisabeth's face slowly, after a few minutes, starts to begin the slow change to normal. No swelling, the split lip seaming right up, a new change with every blink of the eye. like watching in slow motion. The younger blonde is pushing. As if doing so might ocmpensate just a little for what Elisabeth has gone through. It won't, but she can try.

Darius is impressed by the healing even if his not quite a glowering face doesn't show it. The fingers on his right hand still twitch reflexively but now his eyes stop boring a hole in the back of Abby's head in favor of giving a glance to the hall and the window and the walls. Yes, even the walls get a cursory inspection.

Elisabeth sits quietly while Abby pushes to heal her. The face part, at least, becomes obvious as soon as the healing begins. But the bones are knitting too, and the relief from pain is an immense help. She doesn't distract, she merely lays there with her eyes closed as her face reduces in size and starts turning more purpley-pink instead of black, and then some places even start to turn the green of healed bruising that comes next. One can only imagine what might be happening beneath the casts and traction rig. Eventually, she opens her eyes to look at Abby. And in spite of her anger at the girl, concern darkens her eyes too — and she can see out of both of them! "Abby don't kill yourself trying to do it in one go." She remembers what got said about knitting bones the last time.

"I'll do what it takes and you'll take it" Abby responds, bone knitting, She adjusts the flow enough that there's no scarring of the bones even, trying to get as much done and finished before trask can make his way back with the coffee. Soon enough though, There's a hale and hearty elisabeth in the bed, ready to be gotten out of the cast that hasn't even had time to cure yet. And there's an on the verge of passing out healer who's taking her hands back. "Your done. They can do x-rays, but your face will be proof enough. I need to.. go" Each word drawn out, as Abby stands, fetching jacket and bag, nearly ten minutes in total passing since she put her hands on the downed officer. "Can you have someone drop my scooter off at the police station, or in front of my place. I can't ride it back, i'm going to take a taxi. You'll know it when you see it. I need to see who else she's played with" and sleep, pass out somewhere. She's weaving as it is until she puts a hand on the wall to steady herself. "That's my cost, for healing you"

Elisabeth holds the young healer's hand, fearing for Abby on this one. When Abby pulls away, Elisabeth can't really move because she's stuck in the traction device and the cast, but she looks up at Darius, her face healed and presumably other parts of her healed as well, and urges softly, "Darius…. could you take her home? Please? I don't want her to pass out in the taxi." She'll fill in her partner on far more details later, but right now her concern is for the younger woman…. and while she may be angry, she's not angry enough to kick the woman who just made sure Liz wouldn't spend the next six weeks in pain. She looks at Abby and says quietly, firmly, "Don't argue. I'll make sure your scooter gets home too."

Trask returns shortly, with Four coffees, he smiles seeing Liz, then frowns seeing Abby

Darius gives a nod to Liz and moves to Abby. The glower is gone and the studious is back. "I'll be back." He offers as he passes Liz' bed. A hand gives her foot a squeeze as he makes a sweep towards the door for Abby to precede him.

Elisabeth smiles at Darius, her slight nod promising an explanation. And then Trask comes in and she clears her throat and says, "And I could use my doctor, if you can round him up," she offers with a rueful smile. "I'd like to be cut out of this thing."

Abby gives a slight nod of her head to Trask, without a word taking one of the coffee's for the road, at least for herself, then a second for Darius, passing it over. "Call, if another SCOUT officer gets hurt Elisabeth, but this.. this is the end. I can't afford friends. Not and do what I do. You have my number. I'll be moving soon, i'll be by the station to change my address when I do" if she lives. "Officer Trask, have a good morning" and out the door with her police escort the young woman goes.


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January 13th: We're Getting Better at that Interdepartmental Cooperation Thing
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January 13th: Home Jeeves, Er Darius!
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