Participants:
| Scene Title | Grieve |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Abigail's coming off her shift of taking care of Teo and Megans checking in to do some nursely stuff to him. Afterwards, they talk about him, about her and about life. |
| Date | August 25, 2009 |
Staten Island - Ferryman Safehouse
"It's true isn't it, that each of us has two hearts? The secret heart, curled up behind a fist, living gnarled and shrunken beneath the plain, open one we use every day… It's not the content of our dreams that gives our second heart its dark color; it's the thoughts that go through our heads in those wakeful moments when sleep won't come. And those are the things we never tell anyone at all."
Abigail stops reading aloud, noticing the time on the watch on her wrist. Eileen will be coming soon to take over the task of keeping an eye on Teo and making sure he's comfortable. Long ago, it seems so long ago, she and Teo did the same for Alexander.
Coma Boy
Time to shower, change, get something to eat other than a stolen sip of whatever liquid she spoons into Teo's mouth. The young blonde slides out of her chair and leans over the prone form to place a kiss on his forehead. "Rest well Teodoro Laudani. You come back. When you're ready" Murmured loud enough for him to hear. A caress of hand on short hair before she pulls away to head towards the door.
As she approaches the door, it opens from the other side to admit a tall redhead. Megan Young is not old, but she's definitely got some experience under her belt. She's in her early to mid-40s, and her blue eyes on Abby are gentle. "Hello," she offers as she steps into the room. Though she's wearing a simple pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of sneakers, she has that air of professionalism as her eyes skim to the patient. When they come back to Abby, she asks the blonde, "Is it all right with you if I check on your friend?" She's carrying a small medical bag with her.
"Uhm, yeah" Southern drawl present as always. Book in hand, the blonde side steps to let Megan come past her. There's a litany of words that come after. Vitals, what he's been given, you name it. Instead of leaving though, Abigail eases back into the bedroom proper so that she can watch over Megan and Teo. Not that she doesn't trust the woman but it's more than she worries and mother hen's the comatose man.
Megan walks to the bed, setting her bag down and pulling out a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff even as Abby starts reeling off information. Her gaze on the younger woman is steady and she nods briefly. "Nicely done. Are you in a nursing program or EMT training?" she asks easily as she slides the stethoscope around her neck and puts the pressure cuff on Teo's arm. Her movements are brisk and efficient as she does it, and she feels for his pulse even as she awaits Abby's reply.
"Supposed to start EMT school in two weeks" She rattles off. Ever learning, the blonde pays attention to the red heads actions. "Eileen's taking care of him, she knows more than me" Abby thinks, she doesn't know, but she seems to know more than Abby. "Was because of him. He pushed me into it. More like nudged. I think he'd make me become a doctor if I let him"
There's a smile at Abby and Meg is quiet as she counts the beats of his pulse while looking at her watch. It takes only a few seconds, and then she's setting the cuff. Her stethoscope goes in her ears, the pad of it below the edge of the cuff as it inflates. That too takes a bare minute. There's a faint nod as Megan just as efficiently disengages the stethoscope and looks back at the blonde again. "Sounds like a good friend," she tells the young woman. "Is he able to take fluids by mouth? I thought Nan mentioned that you could get him to swallow." Nan, the woman at the front door, has been making sure there's food and such ready at all hours.
"Broth. Really sugared tea. Gatorade" A hand comes down to smooth the blanket over his foot, get rid of a wrinkle. "Abigail Beauchamp" By way of introduction to the woman.
Megan offers her hand easily. "Megan Young," she replies. "Nice to meet you, Abigail. It sounds to me like your friend has a lot of faith in you." She smiles. "Don't give up on him, okay? I'm told that nothing physically seems wrong with him. I'd love to have a doctor check him on the EEG machines, but…. barring that.. you're doing the best thing for him. Keep talking. I'm a firm believer in the idea that coma patients can still hear you."
'I know one. Doctor that is. I don't know whether he could bring one of the machines here" Likely not. Her hand clasps the other woman's and looks to the friend in question. "Least I can do for him, for all that he's done for me. I don't think either of us give up so easily on the other. But if he doesn't wake up soon, what's going to happen. Do you know? They can't keep him here forever can they?"
Megan shakes her head. "We can keep him here for a while. Nutrients intravenously in addition to saline. But there's a couple more days for that, so long as someone's handling a bedpan for him. Beyond a couple more days, we'll need to cath him as well. But there's very little that we understand about the human mind… and in the absence of physical trauma to treat, most of what's required is liquids, nutrients, waste management, and just moving him around so he doesn't get bedsores," Meg admits.
"I'm going to try and get a hold of a healer" Since she's not one anymore. Most of the ferryman likely informed of this by now, it's been well over a few months now. "Get rid of most of everything. Bedsores won't be an issue" Abigail's hand doesn't move from Teo's foot as Megan reels off what will be done for him. Just a bob of her head. "Okay. Umm, I was going to take a shower, see about eating. He'll kill me if I don't eat. Kill me for taking care of him and not myself, uhh, did you want some coffee? I can turn the pot on downstairs"
Chuckling, Megan says, "Go get your shower. I would love some coffee. I'll sit with your friends and take care of the rest of this while you're doing that, okay?" Because Teo's body does need some kinds of care — like the bedpan, moving him around to change the sheets, et cetera.
Abigail will leave the nurse to taking care of Teo's more bodily functions. So far she's not had to do it and some part of her is thankful. She's sure teo would be thankful. So she disappears, knowing he's in far more capable hands than hers - oh Abby you self depreciating woman you - so she can take a long hot shower.
So eventually, she makes her way to the kitchen. Hot food, and coffee percolating without having to have pressed a button. Because Teo is likely not the only person ill and staying here and Abby not the only person along with Eileen who helps to look after the others. There's a mental note that she needs to spend more time at this place.
When she's finished doing what Teo needs done, Megan sits with the man for a few minutes. She's never had the pleasure of meeting him, but she's heard of Abigail Beauchamp, and he must be a good man indeed to have such a loyal friend. Everyone in the Ferry knows Abigail. Then she gets up and makes her way to the kitchen. "He's … as comfortable as I can make him, anyway," she offers as she joins Abby.
Up from her cup of coffee Abigail looks, blonde hair caught up in a towel. 'Thanks" She answers. "thank you for all you're doing for him. I'm sure if he was awake, he's be saying the same thing in Italian. He'd be saying uhh.." She racks her brain to dreg up the words. Her rosetta stone lessons having somehow over the last little bit, gone to the wayside. "Grazie bella"
Megan laughs outright at that. "Italian, is he then?" she chuckles. "I do so love a good accent on a man, don't you?" She helps herself to some coffee. "It's my pleasure, Abigail. I do what I do here because I love it. I enjoy helping people who can't help themselves. I miss the ER sometimes, but… right now, I think working with this group and working where I'm working are… the right places to be." She slants a glance at the blonde while she sips. "Healing is a calling… not merely of power, but of heart. You have to love it to be able to keep to it." Her eyes on Abby are assessing and then she says candidly, "I heard through the grapevine that you were no longer on our call list. I assume it's due to something happening rather than a desire NOT to help anymore." She could clearly see a DESIRE to help upstairs. "Are you recovering?"
Because things travel through the grapevine. The only thing faster than light is gossip. "There's no recovering from whats happened" Recovering implies that you can be as you were and that's not possible. "I just drive people now. Deliver food, offer shelter. Do what I can now" A glance upstairs. "Be there for my friends as they are for me. 'Not near as what I was able to do. I wish I could but.." No rumor that she can't heal, just that she doesn't heal anyone anymore. Her hands settle around the cup. "So you quit at the ER?"
"For now," Megan says as she moves to sit, considering the way Abby phrased herself. The fact that she's still helping tells Meg that whatever happened… it's not 'doesn't'. "They'll want me back if I decide to go," she says without arrogance or false modesty. She just has that much experience and is good at her job. "I'm working at the Suresh Center full time right now. It's a change of pace." She studies Abigail. "Sounds to me like you have the calling well enough Abigail. There are any number of ways to help, even without power. I don't have one, and yet I'm giving it my all too. The transition from being able to heal the way you did to … doing something new? Maybe healing in a different way? That's tough. And if you want to talk, you're welcome at my door. But…." She tilts her head, not dropping her eyes. "I have faith that you'll find your way to it, one way or the other. EMT training's a great start."
"I adore, on some level, how those without an ability, never had a gift, and look at me, tell me it'll be okay. That I'll get by, I'll be fine without it. Look at them, they do. Do you tell that to a person who had both legs amputated?" Abigail looks over at Megan. 'Not to come off as woe is me but… what i've done, what I did was me. Was a very core of me. Three months later and it's not any less. Sitting beside two cops who die hours later, and unable to do anything but hold their hands, only hammers home how big this hole is, this amputation is in me. Seeing Teo hurt and not able to fix it other than hold his hand and read a book he likes…. EMT training, is just.. a way to try and dam up that hole, and hope it works"
Megan doesn't flinch from the anger. "I tell a person who has lost both legs, or their eyes, or their arms… of which I've treated many since I've been a combat nurse in both Iraq and Afghanistan… that no person is any one part of themselves. Their legs, their eyes, your POWER… sure, it's a part of you. And you'll miss it forever. You will feel lost without it for a long time, and when you're old and gray, Abigail Beauchamp, you'll look back and part of you will still think 'what if it wasn't gone? what would I have been? what would I have done?'" Her tone is gentle.
"But you are more than your power. Sitting beside two cops who died hours later is still helping. Whether you realize it or not, you still gave them something of yourself." Her sympathy is evident, but there's no pity. "I never said it would be EASY. I merely said that you can do it. You're a strong woman. And like it or not, life goes on … even when you lose the thing you value the most. It's a cliche, but cliches are cliches for a reason…. time will help. But it never quite goes away, I won't lie."
"I don't think of what if. I know what I would have been. I would have still gone through school to be an EMT" The lecture from the other woman, no matter that it's done in kindness, is still a lecture. She realizes what they say, she knows what they say. She still just doesn't like it. Doens't think they'll quite ever really understand. Helena did, Leonard did. Do.
"Sorry, jsut ignore me. I've had a crappy few weeks. I'm breaking up with my boyfriend, I got body possessed and showed my breasts to the whole of my bar. I got someone saying their my former bosses sister but everything she gave me is fake. Teo's hurt, my other friend is missing and god knows, likely dead in a ditch"
Shaking her head, Megan says quietly, "Grieve for it, Abigail. Just like you would grieve if you lost a leg or your friend. It's a part of you and you're allowed to grieve and be pissed and whatever else you feel." And then Abby says she's been….. "Wait… what? Possessed?" She stares at Abby and says quietly, "Christ, woman… and I thought I had problems." She shakes her head. "Well, since I'm here… tell me what I can do for you, okay? Besides tell you things you already know," she says with a smile.
"Trouble finds me. Everywhere" There's french toast out and Abigail snags a piece from under the cover, not bothering with syrup, just a pat of butter and she's starting to cut it up. "Nothing. I'm fine. Just waiting for test results and then, … Teo to wake" There's a grim press of her lips together. "Lots of waiting" Abigail offers a dim smile at that. "So, a nurse, and served in the military. Lots of people in the rustlers seem to have served in some military"
Megan shrugs at that with a grin. "Yeah, well…. sometimes you get addicted to the adrenaline, I guess. The ER had adrenaline, and so'd working out on Staten with Chicago Air." Her smile dims suddenly. "But I needed a bit of a change. My … I guess you'd call him my boyfriend, though I think I'm far too old for that word… he died. And I kept watching the planes land and waiting for him to walk up the flightline. Realized if I didn't get away from there, I was going to do it forever." She looks up at Abby and says quietly, "And that wouldn't do me a damn bit of good. So… the Suresh Center looked like a good opportunity and I took it. We'll see if it pans out or if I go back to St. Luke's," she says with a shrug.
"here's to hoping that the center works out for you. I'm sure Ferryman keep you busy. Seems like veryone I know is having something to do with there" Which isn't a bad thing. Cat and her ethics class, Megan here and whatever it is that she does there. Abby for now, will be staunchly avoiding it despite Cat's encouragement to visit it.
"Well… assuming it lives up to its hype," Megan says with a trace of skepticism, "it'll be great. But I can't say I blame people for being leery. Even I'm a little leery. But hope starts somewhere, kiddo," she says to Abby. "And if the lot of your friends who keep turning up here aren't fighting for that, what're they fighting for?"
"Fighting for something" Abigail answer. "That's for sure. I'm gonna grab the book and head back up. See if Eileen is up there, if not, I figure i'll go read to him a bit more. You going to be okay?" Abigail inquire of the nurse.
"Of course. I'll be around checking on the rest of the residents in the area, and I'll check back in on him before I leave, all right?" Megan smiles at Abby. "Enjoy the book. Both of you."
Book Quote is from Dogs of Babel - Carolyn Parkhurst