Participants:
| Scene Title | Better Than Flowers |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cesar and Lynette visit a friend in the hospital. |
| Date | April 17, 2018 |
Elmhurst Hospital
As much as Cesar has had on his plate, one thing has not been passed on and that’s paying a visit to a certain seer who at his last sighting was in a wheelchair. A further checkup yielding that Eve is in the hospital, he’s come along with Lynette from the Benchmark on a visit. The agent’s shared the story of his first encounter with the wild-eyed, wild-haired prophet. Tubas, rats, metaphors, and poor Officer Rodgers of the military police who sadly didn’t get to see Miss Rowan (ahem, Mrs. Ruiz!) that night, the whole nine. “Listen, he’s a tough guy but I know he was pretty disappointed not meeting you that night. And in my opinion, you can use that,” he chuckles, holding back full laughter given that they’re in a hospital setting. “I can get him to volunteer a few physical fitness classes, I’m sure.”
"Use that, Agent Diaz," Lynette says, her tone playfully chiding, "I would never. I would only remind him that even military police are a part of this community, and letting us get to know him can only help in building trust between the citizenry and our law enforcement." Which isn't the same thing at all, Cesar. Ms. Ruiz— just to be difficult— pushes open the door to Eve's room, carrying flowers and a box that smells suspiciously like sugary pastries.
"Eve, are you awake?" If she wasn't, perhaps she is now given that Lynette is barging in without so much as a knock. And she lets herself in the rest of the way, too, so she can come over and set the flowers down on a side table.
Having risen from a nap about an hour ago, Eve has been lying awake since then ‘looking’ up at the ceiling, eventually the bed was raised and that's how the two find Eve sitting up and dragging a piece of charcoal back and forth over a piece of sketch paper. Her mouth twitches, head bowed. The top of her head is uncovered, bandage covering the top of her head where they shaved her head. The bandages wrapped around her head covering her eyes, still no sunglasses yet.
Ears perk as she hears voices getting nearer to her room door, it takes a moment but she puts those voices to faces and a crooked smile crosses her lips but her lips are soon quivering as tears well up in her eyes. Not enough to dampen the material covering the blind eyes.
Her head turns towards where she's learned the door is placed after numerous nurses, doctors and Gillians coming in and out. “H..hi.” A pale hand stained with charcoal and IVs attached waves limply at the duo. “Y..you came..” her nose wrinkles and she thinks she smells sweets.
“Listen, I get the feeling that Rodgers wouldn’t mind it, if you asked,” Cesar is telling Lynette as they step into the room. Remembering it’s a hospital, he shuffles the bag he’s got in hand where a tupperware - or rather, a former plastic bucket that used to hold greek yogurt that has since been repurposed - holds his dish that he’s brought along. It doesn’t smell like much yet, but soon. Upon seeing Eve sitting there, shaved and bandaged, it comes as a bit of shock to the agent. She might not see his expression, but it’s stricken.
And immediately he steps in to drop off the plastic bag with food on top of the rollaway table, a hand reaching to cover Eve’s charcoal gripping one. “Ay Dios, amiga,” he half-sighs, half-says with that worry evident in his tone. “What happened…” A quick look goes back to Lynette, like maybe she’s heard any more details.
Lynette knew it was going to be bad, but she wasn't totally prepared for seeing Eve in so many bandages. She takes in a breath, but that's as much as she shows her surprise outwardly. "Hello, lovely," she says to Eve as she sets her flowers down, "I brought you flowers. I don't know what they are, but they smell good." Which she can tell. They're also pretty, which she cannot tell. "And snacks." She brings the box to the bed with her, so she can perch there with her friend. She takes her hand and leans over to give her cheek a quick peck.
When she looks back to Cesar, she shakes her head some. She hadn't heard the details.
"Are they taking good care of you here, Eve?"
“R..ro.. roses really smel.. smell like.. b..boo..boo boooooo.” There's a sharp intake of breath and Eve chuckles, her smile lopsided. “Lovely.” As she squeezes Lynette’s hand with a choked sob, holding onto Cesar’s hand with her other. She has friends, very good friends. “Fo..food. Hospital food.. sucks.” She's grateful for the flowers she can't see and the snacks she will soon taste.
Are they taking good care of her? She shrugs to that answer. “Remeb..remember the rats. They.. they don't like me.. but they’re stuck with me.” There’s a wheezing laugh and she is gripping her friend’s hands. Adam Monroe’s face covered in blood flashes in her mind and she winces.
Her head tips back onto the pillow, eyes shifting beneath the bandages. “Gilly.. Sh..she helped me, her gift.. to help me see more.” There’s a choke and she shakes her head fast back and forth. “Blo..blood, so much.” More than she had seen. “Ad..Adam Monroe.” She says it in a hiss. “War.. i..i..i..is coming.”
“The.. the woman with the gold eyes,” Eve's face twist in a grimace as she sees those flaming gold irses burn into her mind’s eye. “She didn't like that, sh..she..” Eve let's out a cry and slams her head back into the pillows, frustrated. “She took my mind, tore it out from me, slammed me back into my body.” The effort it took for Eve to deliver that full sentence makes her lips quiver and her body roll on the inside. “If.. you loo..look. Hard eno..enough. You can see me.” There’s fear in her voice, mouth opened in a silent scream of horror.
Cesar’s hand grips Eve’s firmly in support. His lips purse when the woman struggles to speak, and the first wince already has him shifting position to help her lean back into the bed. “Shh, tienes que descansar, take it easy there,” he says, attempting to comfort. “You went through a lot— whoa!” Hands release only to move to hold Eve down, quickly checking in case she’s about to roll into another seizure.
Only when she’s seemingly back to a stable, if terrified, state does he let go. But her words have the agent worried, Cesar’s brow creases down. “Adam… War… Gold eyes?” he echoes quietly, casting a wary, worried glance back up to Lynette. Then he turns back to Eve, a hand moving to brush the tangle of her hair. “Breathe, okay, listen. Slow an’ easy. You’re safe here, right now. In and out.”
"Don't hold her down, Cesar," Lynette says when the Agent moves. She looks over at him, her head shaking once. Bad Idea. She holds onto Eve's hands, her thumb brushing over knuckles. Just to assure her friend that she's here and she's listening. When she speaks about her visions, about her predictions, a frown comes to Lynette's face. The fear is reflected, too, but it's born of worry for her friend first. War second. "Listen to Cesar, Eve. You're okay. She can't see you in here. We're with you." Her voice takes on the feeling of a mantra. Like she talks precogs down from their panic attacks fairly regularly.
"You focus on breathing. When you're ready, you can tell me what you saw. And I'll get started." There is no question of reliability or sanity when it comes to Eve's ability. Lynette knows to trust it. "For now, though, I brought you some non-hospital food. Stole it from the chef just for you." And in the spirit of Eve, of course. "Donuts. Do you want to eat something?"
“S..she KNOWS. She knowsssssss. It's right there. In fro..front of us. He..her eyes.”
But then she's trying to catch herself, feeling the hands of her friends trying to reassure her that she's safe. She is almost seventy-five percent sure this is all real and she's not going to wake up any minute now but she can never be too sure, in spite of this train of thought Eve settles down after a few long moments, her breathing coming easier and she's quiet as Lynette speaks.
“M..munchies? s..sin hierba en mi cabello,” she pats Cesar’s arm absently and smiles faintly. “Do..donut. Gilly has one of those.. h..he is nice.” Yes you are Cooper.
“M..maple??” Her tongue flicks out to lick her lips, mmm donut. She seems content to leave her vision behind for now.
The man quickly releases Eve when Lynette instructs not to hold her down, but Cesar stays nearby ready to grab the nurse calling button and jam all the fingers against it should the need arise. He slips an apologetic look back to Lynette for the hasty action, waiting, watching as the blonde woman soothes the soothsayer. A glance then goes down to where Eve pats his arm, and he reaches a hand over to cover hers. The touch is warm, fingers squeezing Eve’s lightly. “Ay,” he huffs a short laugh for the mention of Gillian’s ‘donut’ and the wounded woman’s Spanish, “y tu caballero con tu amiga está aquí.” He’s not in any shining armor, though, just a simple shirt and pants.
“And if you’re in the mood for something more savory, I made some ropa vieja,” he adds, because, “you need protein to keep your strength up.” A look goes down to her leg cast, a soft wince there. Since Eve sounds like she’s partial to donuts first though, he nods to Lynette. It’s one time he’s ok with dessert coming first, given the circumstances.
A stray thought pokes through as he wonders aloud, “Do you got any other family, Eve? Someone we should contact?” He realizes he knows just about nothing of either of the women in the room, really, outside of some surface understandings.
"Always maple," Lynette says and she opens the box to pull one out. It's wrapped so as to spare Eve's fingers when Lynette hands it to her. She doesn't comment on Gillian's donut, probably because she has no clue who she means. Maybe she'll ask around about it later.
"Gillian is her family," she answers, her fingers moving to brush Eve's hair back from her face. "And me, too. And you will have your pick of places to stay after they release you." The latter, she says to Eve. "Don't fill up on those donuts. I've had his ropa vieja and it's delicious." But yes— dessert comes first for the patient. She deserves it. "Is there anything else you need? We can grab anything you're missing."
The donut being pressed into her hand causes a grin to spread on the woman’s face. She looks towards the corner of the room clearly where Cesar is not, “E..es mi ..h..ho..hombre en el techo?!” There’s a look of shock before she’s digging into her donut viciously. If her eyes weren’t covered they would be seen fluttering, it’s good. Her Spanish on the other hand. Eve thinks on that question and as Lynette answers for her she nods. “The..they ar.. are.” With a smile, “..p..parents de..dead the bomb took them.” There’s a wince at the memory but she continues to eat the donut.
“Siste..sisters.. they’re.. m..miss..miss…missing!”
The seer had known them briefly but hadn’t been able to find them in years, a decade even.
“A..a..all I w..want.. is to be Home with ..my.. friends,” a loopy smile on Eve’s lips. And her weed. “..I will.. eat.. A..ALL the things.” Just give them to her!! She licks her lips and fingers. “Mmm ..donut.” Eve needs a lot of things she feels like but her mind goes blank until, “A s..singing card! All of you ..on.. it.”
“Miss Childs, right,” Cesar replies to Lynette with a short nod before looking back to Eve. Sympathy tints his expression, an added tone of worry to the palette. “The bomb took a lot of families,” he then notes, voice husky with a struggle in the back of his throat upon the flash of a reminder of his brother’s fate. He sucks in a breath and focuses instead on Eve’s words, the Spanish not quite translating what she might have wanted it to with the man.
At her request for a singing card, he laughs lightly. “Escúchame,” he then says, glancing over to Lynette and pulls out his phone to scroll through a list on it. Once he finds a song on it, he plays it with a sudden blast of brass and drums, the call of the singer in a way a call for those listening in to join in the salsa beat. A little bit of excitement for the woman, perhaps, bringing the beats so she can at least mentally escape the confines of her situation and imagine somewhere a little more hot, a little more humid, a little more fun.
“Gillian will get you home as soon as you’re able,” Lynette promises on behalf of someone who isn’t here to protest. But she’s sure that Gillian knows Eve doesn’t need to be here a moment longer than necessary. When she requests a sing-o-gram, Lynette laughs.
“I’ll make sure Mateo gives you one.” All of them doesn’t tend to include her. Not when her husband is the more talented option.
When Cesar starts the music, her laughter gets louder. “Eve, did you know Cesar sounds just like Marc Anthony? And that he brought a band with him? We forgot to mention when we came in.” Her tone is cheeky, because she’s not really trying to fool anybody.
The sound of the music makes Eve’s eyebrows raise over and she grins widely though shaky. Rocking her shoulders side to side, it's a noticeable change for the seer in her current position and she extends a hand to the ceiling. “M..Ma..Marc so handsome.” A cough as she laughs and reaches for Lynette’s hand. “Y..you have ..t..to prote..tect Ott..Otter Eyes. Pro..protect everyone. Ple..please..? Plea..please..”
She shakes her head, the music is working but the memory of the dream makes her eyes water and she's tightening her grip on Lynette’s hand, Marc Anthony’s voice and backing band making the scene even more horrible. “T..the.. Horsemen.. Th..they hi..HIDE.”
Eve’s face is even more pale than before and she lays her head back on the pillow with a strained look on her face. “..I.. can..can’t ..hel..help yet.”
Laughing himself as well, Cesar points at Lynette with a wag of his finger, “I’ll have you know Marc Anthony sounds like me.” He goes along with the joke though, mouthing a few of the words to Aquanile until he realizes that Eve is once more distressed about something she’s seen. The man slides the volume down on the song, shoves the music player into his pocket and reaches over to cup Eve’s cheek lightly. “Shhh, okay, okay. You need to rest, chica. Salsa’s a little hot for you today, I got it.” He glances up from Eve over to Lynette who has the other hand and more familiarity with the seer than he.
One questioning look. Horsemen? Is it another metaphor?
But the look is a serious one rather than teasing or joking, and sympathetic all at once. “Listen, Eve, Lynette and I will be around and if you need us, we’re right here, okay? Worked it out with Gillian and such. Plus, my moms used to be a nurse so if I don’t take care of you she’ll give me shit all the way from Connecticut.” That’s fact.
Protect everyone is no small request, but Lynette replies by squeezing Eve's hand. "I'll protect Mateo. I'll protect everyone I can," she says, an easy promise to make. Easier to break. But she has no issue with taking responsibility for all that.
For Cesar's question, Lynette can only lift her shoulders. She doesn't know any better than he does.
"Yeah, we're gonna hang out. But you should get some rest. Eat all this food we brought." Take her mind off her dreams and visions. And all the danger that hangs just overhead.