Participants:
| Scene Title | Visiting Hours are Over |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Brynn calls the only person she knows that can get her out of the hospital. |
| Date | April 1, 2018 |
It’s a little after 5:00pm at the hospital at the safe zone. Doctors had been in and out to check on Brynn multiple times through the day and evening, and aside from the gown that did little to hide her backside on the way to the bathroom, very little was done. Brynn’s registration card was found at some point after she was brought to the hospital, a few things were run and, unsurprisingly, no insurance, permanent address, or anything that indicated an ability to pay came up in the system. It wasn’t unusual, of course, for that to happen, but the hospital had more need than a woman with a dislocated thumb that has been re-set into place already and some major bruising. Beds were at a premium, and that afternoon she was presented with an itemized bill that had quite a few zeroes on it along with a letter that simply stated that due to the inability to pay the balance due and the lack of life-threatening injuries, she was being discharged that afternoon. Did she have anyone she could call to pick her up and take her home?
Brynn was provided with a phone that had a connection and the ability to make any calls she wanted. With Lance and Joe missing, there was only one person that she really could call to help.
Caspian’s non-business line rang, the man answering “Hello?”
“Mr. Dussalt?” the woman’s voice on the end was clipped and military, but tired sounding too. “Are you familiar with a miss Brynn Ferguson?”
“Yes…yes I am. What’s this about?”
“She’s in need of a ride home from the hospital. She’ll be discharged around five pm today. I think it would be best if you….yes, yes miss Ferguson, I’m telling him.” A sigh on the other end. “She wants to know if you can please come get her and bring her something that doesn’t show her bottom.”
Caspian, confused, can only agree. “I’ll be there a little before five. Thank you.”
*click*
With nothing to do now but wait, Brynn fidgets distractedly. People she trusted were looking for her brothers, but it was terrifying to realize that they might be hurt really bad. Eimi might be hurt or dead, if her power use had hurt everyone else this badly. To try to keep her thoughts calm, the teen resorts to the thing she does best… coloring the world around her. The sheets make a convenient canvas, and she is working on her mental imagery, trying to make what appears in the colors under her hands as detailed as possible without actually using a fingertip to draw them, as she usually does.
Caspian drives up to the hospital in his van about fifteen before five and parks it in the patient pick-up zone, argues with the guard that, yes, he’s really there to pick someone up, moves the van fifteen feet to the left, and then heads inside to the receptionist’s desk with a bag over his shoulder.
“Hi, my name is Caspian Dussault? I’m here to pick up Brynn Ferguson, and I’ve brought her a change of clothes?” He hefts the bag to show that, yes, he’s brought a change of clothes.
“Yes, sir, she’s in 103b, just down the hall and to the left.” the receptionist points, then goes back to playing on her iPad, barely looking up.
Caspian heads to 103b and knocks, poking his hand in and waving to get Brynn’s attention before peering around the corner of the door.
#1E90FF|Hi Brynn. Brought clothes.## More caveman talk from Caspian, but he’s getting better. The colorful sheets give him a grin - apparently she’s been at work in her boredom.
—
Brynn glances up, looking grateful for the interruption of her reverie — she's worried and Caspian's arrival means she's outta here. His signing brings a quirk of her lips, her amusement tempered by the worry, but it's definitely there. I'm so glad you could come, thank you so much! And then she stops and just signs Thank you. It's the simplest sign ever anyway. Then she scrawls writing across the sheet. Please tell me you brought me something that will cover my butt!! She turns red. I am *so* freaking getting out of here.
Yes, I did. He knows those signs that she’s throwing out. His first class with Joe was a few days ago, and he’s been studying, too. He holds up the bag and starts to reveal the outfit choices he made. “I had to stop in the market to get some things. I guessed on sizes and got stuff that I was fairly sure would fit.” Shopping for a girl is /not/ something Caspian does very often. Out of the bag comes a pair of black track pants, a colorful t-shirt and a small bundle of what can only be undergarments and a jacket. He came prepared. A pair of shoes, too - sneakers, women’s size 8. All these are placed on the table, the bag folded up and left next to it all. “I’ll leave you to get dressed and then I’ll take you home. I have to hear how you hurt yourself. And where are Joe and Lance? I thought you two were joined at the hip.”
Trying to bring a little levity to the situation.
—
Brynn's expression immediately falls. She bites her lip and lets her power clear the sheet, returning it to white and then letters trace on it. I don't know, Cas. We went scaving, and Eimi 'ported us all out of a locked room. I don't know where *anyone* landed. We gotta find them. I know I've got internal injuries, and if *Joe* has them, it's big trouble. He can't be treated by doctors unless they negate him.
“Unbreakable skin, breakable insides. I get it.” Caspian frowns as he reads, sitting on the foot of the bed, looking from the words to Brynn. “Let’s start at the beginning - how did you get here? I’m trying to figure out if we need to go hunting the wastes for them.” it’s not something Caspian would relish. The city is enormous, the safe zone only a small part. Finding Joe and Lance would be needle in a haystack level finding. It may not be something he can do easily.
“You’re getting let out, so your internal injuries are non life threatening.” He actually reaches out to pat her knee through the blankets. “We’ll find them.” Then, he slips off the bed. “I’ll leave you to get dressed. Come out when you’re ready.”
Brynn nods to him and the scrawls on the sheet, I'll tell you when I come out. it doesn't take long for her to get dressed, though she moves slower than usual. When she comes out, it might be a sign of how upset she is that she didn't immediately change the color of the pants. She's carrying the piece of paper they gave her with the ridiculous bill that she'll never be able to pay, and she uses the back to scrawl the notes to fill him in.
Scaving is easy, you know? Although not so much here, cuz it's picked through a lot. But we headed out to do that and maybe see Hailey. And there was a spot that looked … She pauses here to think about how to word it, and looks around over her shoulder with a frown. We should go.
It's the creepiest feeling ever. The feeling that someone is watching.
A lot of Caspian’s responses are head nods or a quickly signed Yes. to the things Brynn writes, the man taking a moment next to the nurse’s station for a second to borrow a sheet of paper from the printer, passing it to Brynn for communication purposes, and then wadding up the obscenely high bill and throwing it into the nearest trash can. He keeps any prescriptions that may have been written, though. This earns a sour look from one of the nurses who goes back to playing Candy Crush after a moment.
“I know. I scavenged for a few years. Just find a spot where no-one has been, take what’s valuable, keep it secret and looking empty so you can go back. Rinse and repeat until nothing of value is left, then find another spot.” It’s a common way to survive in the world outside the walls of the not-so-safe zone, so he doesn’t bear any ill will to those that take part in it. Her pause has him looking over his shoulder in the empty hall. “Come on. We’ll talk once we’re somewhere safer. My van’s outside. We’ll head to my place. It’s about as safe as you’re going to get in the zone.” And he’s not kidding - bars on the windows, electric fences, and the like? Getting in is difficult if you know the steps to follow.
For mundane intruders, at least.
Brynn nods uneasily, letting him lead her out of the hospital. It's not until they're safely locked in the van that she finishes writing. We went into this basement level over there somewhere and there were bodies. They were weird. Not bodies from battles. Some of them were holding onto each other. And then… someone was there.
The teen literally shudders. They were running and stuff and I couldn't tell what was happening in the dark. I think the door slammed. Brynn's expression reflects shame. I couldn't really do anything, I was so scared. This is why she's not so good for field ops — she's next to useless in the dark anyway. There was movement and I was sure it was *him*. I don't know where he even came from but — I kept flashing my light to try to catch him in the light. Then Eimi just grabbed me, and things *hurt*. I don't think her power was up to it — I think she had all three of us. But I landed alone. It took all night to make it as far as the gate.
She grimaces. I think I passed out for a while. But they weren't anywhere nearby. And I haven't heard anything about them. Tears fill her gray eyes. What if the 'port ripped them apart or something?
It’s a battered van but it’s secure and locked tight. Caspian opens the door, helps Brynn into the passenger seat, closes the door, and makes his way around to the driver’s side and climbs in, starts the car, and starts heading to his place. He leans over to read now and again, only replying when they’re stopped. Since traffic isn’t much of a thing, it’s a lot of weaving around people, obstacles, or waiting for others to cross.
“It probably was somewhere left over from during the war. Some people hiding to get away from the fighting that got trapped and weren’t able to escape.” Caspian tries to justify where they were and why. It’s not something that anyone likes to think about - there are still bodies in the ruins from the war to this day, and it’s only as the safe zone expands that things are cleaned up, the dead buried. He reaches over to squeeze her shoulder lightly, reassuringly, steering with the opposite hand as she writes before he takes hold of the wheel again. “Don’t think that. Joe, Lance, and Eimi are fine. We’ll find them.” How remains to be seen, but he’s going to try.
It’s hard to talk while they’re driving - he needs to face her so she can read lips, or have a hand free so he can write, so he remains silent after that, reaching over to touch Brynn’s shoulder reassuringly as they drive.
Amazingly, it doesn’t take long for Caspian to hit his building, since she was taken to the Elmhurst hospital and his place is in Elmhurst. The garage door opener triggers the gate to open and he pulls in after a moment, the fence closing behind him and re-energizing. He helps Brynn out of the van and into the house proper, setting her up on the couch with a large sheet of paper on the coffee table to write with as he puts up his tool belt and things that were dropped on the floor in the rush for him to get to where she was.
“So, you were exploring a ruin and found a bunch of bodies.” Nothing strange there. “While you were down in the ruin, the door slammed on you, trapping you in darkness, and there was someone else there. Who…do you know who it was? You keep saying *him*. Who is him? And then Eimi teleported all of you?” He shakes his head with a frown. “And scattered you all over the city at minimum. Do you know where you landed? We can try and figure out distances and go from there, looking.”
Brynn allows herself to be helped along both into and out of the van, the ride back to his place quiet… and not just for her. When she is sitting on his couch, she shakes her head finally and wipes the paper clean before writing, I don't know. I just know someone. Could be a girl, I guess. It felt… really threatening, and I guess I just associate that with male. She rubs the back of her neck, worrying the edge of her lip with her teeth.
I *think* I was only maybe a couple miles outside the Zone. But my perceptions of distance in the city are a little off, maybe. And because I had to go all the way around to the gate to get back in, it was a lot longer. I really can't say.
Her hands come up to drag down her face and she hunches over with her face covered to rest her elbows on her knees. She might be thinking or trying not to cry, hard to tell. When she does lift her head out of her hands, though, she has a determined expression. Ygraine's looking and so's a SESA agent. Maybe we can get in touch with at least one of them? She writes down the phone number that she memorized off Cesar's card and Ygraine's number, which she already knows just because of past ties.
The clock on the wall shows a little past seven - getting Brynn out of the hospital took a little bit more time than he expected. Cesar is the first person he calls, dialing in the number, listening as it rings and immediately dumps to voicemail. “Agent Diaz, this is Caspian Dussault. I’m a friend of Brynn’s. She’s having me call in regards to her friends Joe and Lance, and if you’ve seen them. She’s very worried. If you have any information you can share, please call me at this number. Okay, thanks.” And he hangs up.
“Sorry, strike one. Left a message.”
The second call goes to Ygraine and this time, he gets an answer.
“H…hello? Miss Fitzroy? Yes, my name is Caspian Dussault. I’m a friend of Brynn’s. Do you have a moment?”
She on phone. he signs, motioning for the pencil so he can write what she says.
“Ah… yes. I do. Hopefully you’ve not been trying me for long. I’m not always anywhere I have reception. Is Brynn all right?”
Caspian writes what Ygraine says, giving a thumbs up to the photokinetic, keeping the phone away from his mouth so she can read his lips easier. “No, not very long. This is actually my first try. Lucky thing, that.” he glances to Brynn. “She’s doing okay. A little shaken and bruised, but otherwise fine. She’s out of the hospital and was wondering if you’ve heard anything about Lance, Joe, or Eimi. She’s very worried.”
There’s an audible sigh. “I’m afraid not, no.” ((Well, I presume not!)) “I wish I had some news to pass on.”
Brynn's hopeful expression fades at that news and she leans back into the couch, discourages. She doesn't know what to do from here, and that shows on top of the fear. She shifts, still in pain, and looks up at him. So… just wait? Maybe we could check the apartment?
“I see.” Caspian sounds disappointed, frowning a little as he sits on the coffee table across from Brynn. “We’ll go check their apartment soon, just to be sure. Will you please give me a call if you hear anything? I can generally get in contact with Brynn fairly easily.”
“Absolutely,” Ygraine agrees immediately. “I’ve been asking around, but it’s just pot luck whether I find anyone who has heard anything.”
“It’s a big city.” Caspian agrees. “We’ll find them, though.”
If she could hear his tone, perhaps Brynn could take comfort in those words. They've been on their own for a long time … but they're rarely alone on their own. Whether it's Hailey and her animal friends/teams or the rest of the kids and each other, they've just done communal living for so long, it's the norm. Alone means no backup when things go pear-shaped. It's not what we do, which is why Hailey's insistence bothers all of them so much.
She leans back and closes her eyes after seeing Cas reassuring Ygraine on the phone. Because there is little to nothing she can do with this information. None of the people she knows are close enough with an ability that might help, that she is aware. Cash, Colette, Kaylee, Gillian… her mind runs the names and abilities through her mental database.
If the boys and Eimi don't turn up soon, she's going to have little choice but to pull out some big guns — Cash and maybe even Colette. But whoa if she has to call in Colette from Rochester, that might get sketchy in a hurry.
All of these thoughts run through her head in moments. When she opens her eyes again to look at Caspian, she simply signs, I don't know what to do.
With Ygraine hanging up and Brynn leaning back on the couch, Caspian shifts to sit next to the girl after a moment, putting his phone down. Then, he speaks, his hands moving slightly as he signs and says the words after a moment. I don’t know. He pauses for a moment, thoughtful. “We will think of something, though. They always turn up. Might be hurt but they’ll be okay. If there is one thing that I always had, it was hope. I can hope things will be fine while doing my best to make sure they are.”
Brynn nods to the reassurance, although it's pretty obvious that it doesn't ease her fears… they are both kind of whistling in the dark, holding worry at bay. She allows herself the comfort of laying her head on his shoulder the way she would with Joe or Lance if they were here.