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 Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:34 pm
It had been late when they'd made it to the hospital, Cassie couldn't have said when exactly. They'd barely walked through the sliding doors to the emergency room when a flock of nurses had rushed over to scoop Cassie up and wheel her straight back to the ICU. Everything had been mostly a blur after that. Cassie remembered them putting an IV in her arm, something warm and tingling spreading through hr veins from the drip, and an endless stream of questions and instructions coming in from all sides as hands pushed and pulled and prodded. When all was said and done the girl had a grade three concussion, damage to her windpipe and vocal cords do to strangulation, severe bruising over the majority of her body but especially localized around her throat and abdomen, two broken ribs and three others that were bruised or fractured, and seven stitches to repair torn skin around the bite on her neck. It was a laundry list of injuries, and the story that had been fed to the doctors was that Cassie had been attacked on her walk home by an unknown man that had beaten her senseless and might have done more if Quinn hadn't walked onto the scene. An abbreviated version of that had been given to Cassie's mother and twin when they'd both been notified that she was in the hospital. She wasn't quite sure when Quinn had left, but when Cassie woke up later that morning she was gone, but there was a slip of paper on the bedside table with a number on it.
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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2018 5:52 pm
He sat there and griped.
He'd been sitting there and griping for the better part of an hour now, feet propped up on the end of Cassie's bed, arms folded across his chest. Caspian had told Michael that he was going to visit his sister, and since Michael disliked hospitals on principal anyway, Caspian had come on his own, mostly to make sure his sister was okay.
But also because she was a dumbass and he was annoyed.
Their mother, Zoe, was out of town on a business trip and would be back soon enough, but at least she knew that Cassie would be all right and that it wasn't life threatening, even if she looked ******** awful. Caspian's gaze traced the bruises on her neck, the black and blue marks over her face, stitches on her neck, bandages everywhere. She looked like she'd been hit by a train.
She'd been asleep or unconscious or just drugged up for hours now, but she was stirring, and Caspian, a bag of M&M's in his hands, narrowed his gaze at her as she blinked blearily awake.
"Are you an idiot?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 11:23 am
"Are you an idiot?"She knew that voice, knew it very well, and the words weren't exactly shocking considering who they were coming from, but with the amount of pain killers she had running through her system just then she wasn't entirely sure why he was saying that now. Blinking, brows creasing, she tried to work it out as she turned her head enough to see him sitting there, but it came with a grimace and a wince, even that small movement hurting. Well, everything hurt, but any extra movement was almost too much. When she spoke her voice was broken and rasped, and it was clear that every word was a struggle with how badly battered her throat was. "W-why idiot?" How long had he been sitting there? Where had Quinn gone? Hell, how long had she been out? It was impossible to tell. She thought maybe she'd been in and out a few times, but had no concrete memories of any of it after they'd plugged the first IV into her arm.
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:47 pm
He sighed.
In spite of the fact that they bickered like five year olds, and in spite of the fact that he liked to call Cassie a variety of likely unflattering nicknames (like a*****e or dickface or shitbag); she was his twin. She was his other half, the one person besides Michael who knew him, even if he had to keep parts of himself a secret.
Michael knew him, heart and soul. Cassie knew his mind, how he worked, what he thought. Sometimes they hadn't even needed words to say what it was that they were thinking, because they had already known. Their mother had rolled her eyes at this at the start, but eventually she had grown accustomed to their silent methods of communication.
Caspian ate another M&M and tried not to feel antsy, which was nearly impossible already.
"How are you feeling?" he asked instead, ignoring her question.
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Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 5:54 pm
Well that was a silly question. How do I look like I feel? "Like someone...tried to kill me." Cassie grimaced, wincing at rush of pain that followed that answer. Her breath left in a rushed huff that melted into half a whimper before she managed to catch it. It felt as if the painkillers that'd been making her feel nice and fuzzy were fading. The soft, dull aches were getting sharper, closer to the surface and less easy to ignore. Blue eyes rolled up to the IV bag hanging beside her bed, but she couldn't read the label, ad even if she had been able to she wouldn't have understood it. Shifting hurt, but she drew her hands out from beneath the covers anyways, groping along the edge of the bed for a call button she thought someone had mentioned being there. "Hurts." She looked up at her brother. "Get t-the nurse?" They could bring her her next round of painkillers, or at the very least let her know when she could take more. "'Ow's mom?" This would be easier if she had something to write on.
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Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 10:09 am
Her face was identical to his, which meant that seeing her banged up and bruised and bandaged was like looking in a mirror; like seeing a strange half of himself in a universe where he was the one in the hospital bed, in pain and drugged up on painkillers.
Caspian ate another M&M. "Well, you didn't die," he said bluntly, ignoring the instinctive swell of fear that accompanied that statement. He tamped resolutely down on it - she's not dead, she's not dead, she's not dead - and instead focused on the slow and unsteady movements of his sister.
Cassie's face was stricken. Caspian pulled his feet down from the bed and pushed up, reaching to snag the call button before she could, jabbing a finger on it and pulling it out of her grasp. It gave a little beeping sound, and then a nurse's calm voice said, "Do you need something, Miss Lyons?"
"My sister's awake," said Caspian, "She's in pain."
"I'll be right down."
There was a click, and then silence. Caspian put the remote down and reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from his twin's face.
"Mom's fine," he said. "She's on her way back now, but she was in Australia, so it'll take a while. She said to tell you that she's furious at you for making her worry but also that she loves you."
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Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2018 6:19 pm
It was a mingled mix of relief and annoyance as Caspian drew the remote from her hand and called the nurse for her, and Cassie wasn't entirely sure why the latter was there at all, it wasn't as if talking was easy right now. Maybe all those times he'd stolen the remote from her to take over the TV while she'd been in the middle of watching something. An emotional muscle memory. That was a thing, right? She settled again as she listened to him speak to the nurse, and offered him a grateful smile as he replaced the remote. More painkillers would arrive soon, she just had to be patient and wait. She could do that. Probably. Maybe. A huff followed their mother's admonishment, and Cassie sighed. "Not like I wan-" she winced, swallowed, winced again, and continued. "Wanted this to happen." If there'd been any way for her to have gotten away before Leto had had to intervene she would have, but the knight had been there at every turn. "Why Australia?" Surely their mother had mentioned the nature and destination of the trip at some point, but Cassie was having a hard time recalling it.
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 4:21 pm
He hated this. He hated seeing his vibrant, colorful, snarky, sarcastic, fantastic twin barely able to speak because she'd been hit by a bus or mugged or whatever had happened, and he hated that she looked weak and fragile and in too much pain to do anything.
Caspian wanted to hit something. Or maybe just someone.
"Well, you know Mom," he said, as the nurse came swishing in. She briskly set a Styrofoam cup with a plastic lid and a straw on the attached table to Cassie's bed, then set about checking her vitals, pressing a few buttons on the monitor until there was a small clicking sound.
"There you are, sweetheart," she said kindly to Cassie. "I've given you what you need for the next few hours; if you feel any pain or anything else, let me know immediately, okay?"
She gave Caspian a small nod, made sure everything else was in order, and breezed out again, fast, but efficient. Caspian glanced down at his sister once more, reaching out to drag his chair from the foot of the bed over to the head of the bed and sat down again.
"She's on a business trip," he said. "Something about a photoshoot with kangaroos or some s**t. Do you need anything else? Are you hungry?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2018 6:34 pm
Cassie's hands remained tightly wound in the thin blankets that covered her lap until the that soft click. A second passed, then another, and there was a warm, tingling rush that had her relaxing, finally, against the bed again. Drawing too deep a breath still hurt, but the sharpness was fading gradually around the edges, and she no longer felt like laying there in a whimpering puddle. To the nurse she nodded, lips ticking up in the corners in a soft smile. "Thank you." That woman was an angel. As she left Cassie turned her attention back to her brother and his explanation of why their mother was halfway across the globe in Australia. Mention of a photo shoot did seem at least slightly familiar, and being gone for a while. Had Australia been mentioned to her before now? Cassie couldn't remember. To Caspian's question she started to shake her head before thinking better of it. "Not hungry. Water would...be nice." She'd seen the nurse bring it in, and her throat was sore and parched. Cold water would feel heavenly.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 7:16 pm
He could see the medicine beginning to take effect, which made some of the tension in Caspian's shoulders ease, though not completely. A part of him wished Michael was here, so that he could have someone to lean into; but the other part of him didn't want Cassie to be uncomfortable or feel weird around his husband.
That, and Michael detested hospitals.
"Water it is," said Caspian, in lieu of a snarky comment, and reached for the Styrofoam cup. He bent the straw towards Cassie's lips, holding it gingerly in case she didn't have the strength to hold it herself, ice cubs chinking noisily against the sides.
"See? Drugs are helpful. Sometimes."
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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2018 4:59 pm
The medicine, Cassie quickly found out, was something of a double-edged sword. The pain was quickly receding but it also felt like her fingers were starting to go a little numb as she lifted a hand to try to take the cup from Caspian's steady hand. She managed, barely, sipping at the cool water as she settled the cup on her chest. His comment had her smiling up at him, lips splitting in a wide grin. "More than sometimes." It was casual, thoughtless. Certainly more than she meant to admit to her twin, but right that second she wasn't capable of caring. "When'd mom's flight leave?" Australia to the states was....twenty-three hours? Twenty-four? Something crazy like that. "She finish h-er job there?" The way Caspian had worded it, Cassie didn't think so. Which sort of sucked, cause a flight to Australia had to be pretty pricey, and now their mom was either going to have to swallow that cost, or pay her own way back. And how much did the photoshoot there even pay? Cassie sighed, catching the straw again for a long, soothing drink.
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2018 7:58 pm
Caspian said, with a touch of amusement that also bordered on exasperation, "Sometimes. As long as you're not like...you know, doing anything super stupid or some s**t."
He himself didn't care for any substances except maybe booze, a fact that had been a long running and surprising difference between the two of them, but Caspian mostly preferred to keep a clear head about things. Not that he hadn't tried one or two things when he was younger, but only ever once or twice and then he'd just not cared about it anymore.
"A few hours ago." Zoey Lyons was a tiger, a force of nature for her children, and Caspian loved her fiercely, even if he was also sometimes annoyed by her, because what children weren't irritated by their parents about at least one thing these days? "She should be here sometime in the morning. And it was some big hotshot thing, so I think it paid well and all. She sounded like it was a good thing or whatever."
Caspian reached out a hand, tugging ever so gently on a lock of his sister's hair.
"Don't worry," he said, because Cassie didn't need to say anything for him to understand what she was getting at. "She said the company paid for her to fly home on short notice since it was an emergency and all."
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Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:13 pm
There mother was a mover and a shaker, master of her own destiny, and had never once allowed another person to hold the reigns of her life. She'd wanted a career, and she'd forged once for herself. She'd wanted a family, so she'd had herself a couple of kids and proved every naysayer in their family wrong by being a badass single mother of twins. Of course she was off doing something impressive. Everything she did was impressive. Cassie blinked as her brother tugged at a lock of her hair, snapping out of her own thoughts to look at him, then gave a relieved smile at his assurance. "That's good." Worrying their mother was bad enough, she didn't want to cost her a job on top of that, especially not one that sounded this promising. The smile slipped away again as she remembered Caspian's greeting to her. He was scared for her, she knew that, but still stuck with her. "I was just walking home, Cas," she rasped, looking up at him earnestly. "Not causing trouble. Just walking home through the park." Not the whole truth, but the meat of it. The spirit of it. When she'd been attacked she'd been blindsided. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wearing the wrong ******** fuku.
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2018 4:35 pm
It was possible that Caspian and Cassie would never actually know who their father was, mostly because he'd been a one night stand and all their mother would say about him was that he was "a drunken a*****e but also kind of hot." Some part of Caspian was vaguely interested in learning more about him, but he had never pressed, mostly because he thought their mother was good enough for two parents.
Cassie still looked out of it, even if the medication had started to work. Caspian was trying not to think of how awful she looked, because it was already painful enough to see his twin sister lying in a hospital bed. He didn't need more reminders that s**t happened to people he loved.
"Yeah, well," he muttered, but his fingers gently curled into a fist and poked the side of Cassie's face in an extremely light, and nevertheless affectionate, imitation of a punch that didn't go anywhere, because he was afraid of breaking her. "I believe you. I just..."
Caspian trailed off, biting his lip; a habit that still stuck with him, regardless of how often he tried not to do it, because it was a subconscious and instinctive thing.
"Just make sure you get better soon okay?" he said gruffly. "So you can get the hell outta here."
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Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2018 5:13 pm
Unlike her brother, Cassie had never had much interest in knowing their father. If their mother didn't think he was good enough to be a part of their lives she'd trust that, occasional curiosity or not. He hadn't been there for them, not like their mom. She didn't bother to brace for the soft curl of knuckles Cas touched her cheek with, she trusted him not to hurt her, even as fragile as she felt just then. But she wanted to make sure he knew she hand't gone looking for trouble. That what had happened to her hadn't been from dicking around where she shouldn't have been. Gevauden had gone after her because she'd been awakened into the Dark Mirror Court. Over a vendetta he carried for her court that had been born long before her family had even moved to Destiny city. It wasn't fair. She watched her brother try to swallow down his anxiety over her being here and didn't know what to say to make it better. "Cas, do you think I can stay with you and Micheal when I get out of here?" It'd give their mother the freedom to get back to work quicker if she knew Cassie was safe in her brother's care, and Cassie didn't have to worry about being a burden to the busy woman.
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