Participants:
| Scene Title | Hospital Life |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Cassidy lives at the hospital while Coren was there, although he does eventually manage to convince her that he can't eat the Mexican food that she bought the night before that has been sitting at room temperature for half a day, and so she finally goes off to get him something edible. |
| Date | June 1, 2009 |
Cassidy got little sleep in the waiting room, while waiting for a doctor.. nurse.. someone to tell her Coren's out of surgery. When the doctor finally came in and told her he was fine and the procedure had gone well, she insisted on seeing him. A nurse showed her the way, leaving her at the door. "Thanks.." She murmurs before moving into the room, where the prone form of her partner could be found. Coming up along side his bed, she silently glanced the the beeping machines, before dropping the bag of now cool Taco Bell on the table next him. "See.. told you I would.. I wouldn't eat it when you wake up though." A small smile touches her lips at the sleeping man.
Since it was going to be awhile before he woke, she drug a chair over by the bed and then another one to face it. Settling into the make shift recliner she makes herself comfortable. She wasn't leaving.
Light drifts in from the window, when she finally moves again. She gives a soft groan at the pain in her neck from the odd angel she slept.
It was nearly eleven before he got out of surgery, and he was under the whole time thanks to anaesthesia. Perhaps the most surprising thing is that he continued to sleep after that. Of course, it could have had something to do with the morphine. Needless to say, when eight o'clock rolls around there is a bit of stirring. Light indeed does stream in through the windows, just past the stage of pink and orange — among other colours the smog and dust create — at that time.
He's not quite awake, but his eyes do venture open, squinting at the light after having been asleep for so long. Even after the longest shifts, he's never slept nine hours, not in a long time anyway. It takes his eyes a bit of time to adjust before he has them open completely, and a bit longer to get back into focus and shrug off the last of the anaesthetic. The morphine continues to buzz ever-so-slightly at his senses.
Arching her back to stretch the cramped muscles, Cassidy grimaces at the pain. She slides out of the chair and stretches again. "Damn.. they should like those chair bed things." Yes she's talking to herself a bit. She moves to the window pushing a slat aside slightly so that she can look out into the bright morning. She's stands there for a second when she realizes he's awake. Or… mostly. She turns back to to see his eyes open and moves to his side. Giving him a grin she says with her voice just above a whisper. "Hey partner." She doesn't ask how he feels, but something tells her that he's feeling pretty shitty and good at the same time.
"Yes, for many a hospital bedside nap," Coren mutters. Had she asked how he was feeling, he'd have responded, 'how do you think? I've been shot.' He moves with a bit of a wince to get a better look at his surroundings. The bag of old, cold, and likely spoiled Mexican food is spotted and a smirk forms on his lips. "I suppose I should have said breakfast, yes? That can't possibly still be edible."
"Only if you want your stomach pumped.." Cassidy muses at his last comment, glancing at the bag, returning his smirk. She rolls her stiff shoulders and then sighs. "Looks like you /and/ I get a bit of a vacation. While you were in surgery I got a call telling me I was on administrative leave." She wrinkles her nose. "I really hate that. And why they didn't do that when Mortimer broke in my place, I'll never know."
"Administrative oversight, probably," Coren says before he negotiates himself into a seated position with the help of the handy-dandy bed control. "Let me take a wild stab in the dark and say they want to keep me for a whole week, right?" He rolls his eyes and leans a little harder into his bed, making him grimace. He can endure the dull pain just fine, but you go and put pressure on two bullet wounds, morphine or not, and … well, that's almost like getting shot again. "What the hell am I going to do with a bloody vacation?"
Watching him, with concern Cassidy moves to sit on the edge of the bed. She gives a shrug and shakes her head. "Relax… Stay out of the other cops way… Heal…" She ticks them off on her fingers. "Did I say stay out of the way." She gives him a small smile. "Oh wait.. that last was for me… cause I told them I didn't want to be on freakin' leave." There is a small flash of anger. Worse part about stuff like this was being sidelined and told to practically sit on your hands and do nothing. "I imagine if you do well enough, we can get you out of here and home sooner…." she glances at the door. "As long as I stay with you and help you out."
"And I suppose you're going to start sleeping over again, right?" Coren says. It's almost not amused, but at the same time, there's something there. It will be nice to have something at home again. Of course, his apartment was never made for entertaining one's self. There's no television, no radio save for his alarm clock, only boring old textbooks, most of which have been kept due to writing credits.
Cassidy gives a rather fake heavy sigh, crosses her arms and narrowing her eyes at him. "Of course, unfortunate for you, since you only just rid of me." But then there is small tug of a smile, helping to break that illusion of irritation. There is a part of her that will be glad to be there again. "But.. I'm dragging over my TV and my player." She gives him a 'no arguments from you' look.
There's a stifled laugh from Coren. Not good for a recently patched up punctured lung, and all. "I never intended to have guests, and as I said long ago, I don't use the place all that often. It was never problem before. But if I'm really going to be stuck on my arse for a week or so recovering from being shot — again — then there has got to be some form of entertainment, or I'll go madder than I would already."
Instantly concerned as he struggles not to laugh. "Sorry, Coren." She gives an apologetic smile for making him laugh. Something saddens in her and she seems to be a bit more subdued all of a sudden. "Yeah, I imagine the TV will help. I can bring over every cop drama I have in my DVD collection and we can sit there and pick apart the inaccuracies." She glances at the door again, the ever cautious cop. Can't blame a girl for being a bit more paranoid after finding her partner shot. The image of him slumped in that alley and the emotions with it hit her hard before sh can stop it. She quickly closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "Or.. I can hit the video store." Her voice sounds a bit hollow to her.
"Just nothing funny," Coren says, "Not for a couple of days at least. Well, I guess it won't matter, if they intend to keep me a week." He reaches his hand out to tightly grip Cassidy's, "Hey. It's not like this hasn't happened to me before. Remember, I can endure." Hey, he suffered through two gunshot wounds to the back, torn-up muscle and everything — though admittedly that's the most painful part of it — and he's still alive. That's gotta be a good sign. "And once I'm well enough, we'll track down the son of a bitch who shot me." Wishful thinking, of course. The brass would never allow it.
His hand in her's, Cassidy finally opens her eyes. "Sorry.. Last night it was like my first partner all over again.. except this time you didn't die and I didn't get the shit kicked out of me." She let's her fingers lace with his, there is something comforting about that. "But damn it gave me a scare." Her heart echoing her though with a sudden couple harsh beats of fear. "They said they'd teach me how to change the bandages for when your home. That way we don't have to drive you to the emergency room to have it done."
Wonderful. She gets to play nurse. "If they're going to keep me for a week, I don't imagine you should have to do that for more than a couple of days. Feels like the stitched, stapled, or glued it pretty good to me," Coren says. No, he doesn't like be waited on by anyone, and being in the hospital for more than a day is likely to drive him completely batty. But wait, why should he have to wait? He knows a healer! Yes, there's the sudden expression of the proverbial light bulb.
As she's suddenly reminded, Cassidy's hand tightens in Coren's briefly to catch his attention. "I… talked to Abigail." She starts, carefully keeping her voice neutral. "She came by here.. and sat for a bit." She grimaces a bit. "I was pretty pissed cause it seemed like she wasn't doing anything.. Well, I asked… She can't heal anymore." That last bit comes out in a rush. " Her powers were ripped out of her by someone and given to another." She bites her bottom lip and waits for it to sink in.
Somehow, Coren felt like he knew what Cassidy was going to say before she said it. Which is weird, since he has never heard of any such thing happening before. But the shock of feeling like he knew Cassidy was going to say it is nothing compared to shock of hearing it. Abigail without her power? That's just, unfathomable. He's silent for some time, lips in a tight line across his face as he processes the information. "Well, fuck," he says finally. He stops himself from taking a deep breath. "Oh bloody hell, she must feel like … that girl's been through so much, I can't imagine how hard she's taking this. She's right there and she can't do anything?" His eyes tear up slightly at the thought. After all the shit Abigail's been through and now this? "I should have waited for backup," he says. "Is anything being done about it?"
Cassidy's eyes fill with tears when her partner's do, the why is unclear as to whether it's cause of his emotions or what she says next. "And I was a bitch to her." There is a pang of guilt in the woman at remembering how cold she was to the former healer. "But last night.. I saw her turn her back…." She looks him in the eyes, her eyes still shining with unshed tears, when he mentions the back up. "Yeah, Coren.. you should've waited. I should have been there watching your back." and he might not have been shot. "And no… Didn't sound like anything was being done. Or that's the impression I got from her, she didn't even file on the attack."
Coren reaches up to place his hand on Cassidy's shoulder. He's at a bit of a loss for words, because he's still trying to digest the mere idea of what Abigail is going through. "You should go to her, Cassidy. Talk to her. Something, anything. If you think this is hard for us, thinking about what she's going through — she used to be able to help and she had to just stand there and watch this happen. Make sure she's OK?"
Shoulders slump a bit, when his hand settles on them as if he's just put a heavy burden on her. "I will.." Just not now. Right now, her place is here, she needs to be there. "I promise." She glances around and looks at the clock. "Shouldn't be long before the doctor does the rounds. Maybe we can find out when, we can get you home." There is just something in how she says the word 'home' and the emotions that came with it. There is a sort of comfort to the word. She gives herself a shake as if trying to get rid of her thoughts.
To think the hand was meant to take the load off. Instead, Coren goes and burdens his partner with something he'd much rather do himself, but there's simply no way the hospital would let him go walking out of there. Not after two and a half hours of surgery to help repair the damage of two gunshot wounds. One broken rib and a punctured lung, later… Abigail will probably be along at some point anyway, he could probably tell Cassidy to just wait for her to come to them, but that's just not fair. She needs tending to. He lets out a bit of a snort at the comment regarding the doctor doing his rounds, "Yeah, we'll see. At any rate, I'm aiming for half the time. If he says a week, I want to be gone in four days." There's a sidelong glance to bag of Taco Bell, "You mind getting me something for breakfast? God forbid I eat that, and I certainly am not interested in eating jello." Not that there's anything wrong with jello, but it's just no good without the flavour — and hospital food isn't known for its taste.
Cassidy glances at the bag, as small smile tugging at the corner of her lip. "That, I can do that. I should have known better then to get anything last night." She glances back at him and gives a small shrug of her shoulders. "But then, mind acts weird under stress." She moves to get up, though it's hard for her to let go of that hand. There is a twinge deep in her as she slides her fingers out of his hand, that feeling kind of scares her. She didn't want to get close to a partner.. and had succeeded since Buck died. " But yeah, I can do that for you. Anything in particular catches your fancy?" She pulls her coat off the back of one of the chairs and shrugs it on while she waits for an answer.
"Steak and eggs," Coren says, without really thinking about it. "Maybe throw in some bacon while you're at it." He knows plenty about how much the mind acts unusual under stress. If he hadn't been worried for Abigail's safety and had been concerned for his own, he sure as hell would not have gone out into that alley alone and wouldn't be lying in a hospital bed right now.
Snatching the bag of Mexican, Cassidy gives him a grin. "So you ask.. so you shall receive, Detective Shelby." She fishes keys out of one of her coat pockets and eyes him laying there. "Need me to swing by anywhere else? Home… work.. oh wait.. for get work. Not doing any of that."
There's a very short laugh at the comment about work. "No," Coren says, "Won't be doing that for a short while anyway." And he doesn't want flowers. God, if anyone sends him flowers or get well cards he'll go postal on them. No, no pity or well-wishes for him, thanks.
"Fine.. no flowers either. " Cassidy says her focus on tying the coat shut. "I'll tell them to send you bottles of Scotch in lieu of flowers and… " She stops suddenly and blinks at her partner. She gives her head a shake and frowns a bit. "Um… anyhow. I'll see you in a bit."
Coren just has this sort of agape expression on his face as Cassidy goes and reads his mind like that. "Now that, that right there is interesting," he says. He tilts his head, somewhat confused but admittedly half-expecting it, given the little things here and there over the past month. "We'll talk when you get back with breakfast."
Cassidy looks a bit distracted as her partner says something to her. "Hmm?" She asks at first and gives him an odd expression. "Talk? Uh.. sure yeah. When I get back." She turns away quickly and hurries, a bit faster then she means to, out the door. Did she just do what she thinks she did? Maybe Liz was right.. she's starting to finally develop her abilities… Man things just keep getting weirder everyday.
