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 Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:16 am
Kaia sat still as Ladon rearranged himself, trying to look as impassive as possible. In some ways, she admired him - he was brave even now, as he faced more pain on top of weeks of torture. In other ways she pitied him - it seemed as if he couldn't get a break even now.
She set the splints down beside herself on the couch and reached out to take the hand he had cushioned on the pillow. The angles were bad, which meant the breaks would be worse, and there was still no guarantee that she could fix them entirely. All she could do was try.
"Alright," was her only answer as she reached out for the first of the two fingers. There was no count down, there was no need to reassure him because there was nothing assuring about this.
She drew one long deep breath of her own and then snapped the first finger back to the angle it needed to be. She felt the bone snap beneath her fingers, heard the crunch like it was right next to her ear. She was swallowed, but said nothing as she continue down the bone, shifting everything back into place as best she could.
She stopped there, ignoring whatever clench or shift there was from Ladon - if she looked at him, she would lose her resolve. She simply picked up the first splint and put it in place without the wrapping, momentarily, so she could move onto the next. She repeated the process with the next finger - snap, align, splint.
Then she sat back, refusing to look at his face, and began to unwind the bandage. She could pretend that the few spare moments were for her to gather her supplies, but she really just wanted to give him a breath. The worst was over now, at least.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:29 am
He probably would have liked a countdown, but as it was, it wouldn’t have done a damn thing in the end. The cracking was unbearable, and the first break ripped pain through his already sore and tender fingers that he had been greatly unprepared for. Pain yes, but when you actually felt it, it hurt a whole hell of a lot more than what he thought it would feel. Worse of all, it kept going, and with his head down, he hadn’t looked up to see when the end was in sight. At least, unlike torture, there was an end in sight that he knew would come.
Each crack made him tense and jerk, the first instinct was to pull his hand back, but he kept it still. Holding his arm out for her to grip though a few times he nearly yanked it back and out of her grasp. After a point, his arm just started to shake from strain as he felt a heat roll over his face and his features pale. He bite his lip, clenched his teeth, swore over and over in his mind, and tried to suffocate the noises into the cushion and the side of his outstretched arm, at one point biting the fabric of his sleeve to somehow keep the noises below a grunt or whisper.
And then it was over, but he did not look up. He breathed out, collecting himself and feeling both sick and tired. Fresh out of bed and he was already ready to lay down again and not move. He had to wait a while before he managed to slowly sit up again, looking far worse from when they started. “Thank you. I know that wasn’t easy for you.” He said, knowing that a young girl, no matter if she was experienced in first aid or not, wouldn’t find that part enjoyable. Not unless you were really messed up.
As she prepared to wrap, he leaned his head against the back cushions of the couch, and then licked his lips. “Billy, you can come out now.” He called. The worst of it was over and now he could at least be able to have Billy around without feeling worse with his presence.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:42 am
Billy hated that he wasn't the one who could take care of this. He hated that he didn't know how. But what do you expect? He was someone who had gone through most of his life seeing people as things. Pawns. You don't worry about patching up a pawn when there are sixty million there to take its place. He supposed he should be grateful that they knew someone who could, although it hurt his ego terribly. He was pretty much 90% ego anyway though...
Laying in the bed, looking grumpy as ever, he opened his eyes as he heard the clear. The way Ladon said it was as if he had come in here because he was afraid to watch. Pluh. Billy would never admit how hypersensitive he was being. Like a spoiled kid. Although a spoiled kid might have stomped his feet and crossed his arms and yelled something to the effect of 'no! I'm not going anywhere!'
It was insecurity that brought him back. The terror of not knowing where Ladon was and for a split moment having a lapse in memory and reality, thinking that perhaps the rescue hadn't happened. That it had just been a delusional dream brought on by cold medication. And Billy didn't know exactly why he feared so greatly for Ladon's safety. How had he gone from viewing everyone as lesser, to actually allowing to rise so far up, up, up the pedistal to stand beside him?
When he emerged he was as silent as when he left, and he took a place in the floor in front of the couch, nearest Ladon.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 9:33 pm
Alkaid nodded slowly at Ladon's words, for a moment just letting them pass by in silence. She was still intently toying with the bandages.
"You do what you have to, sometimes, for the greater good." She finally spoke as she looked up at him, a small, sad smile on her lips. "If someone needs my help, I'm going to offer it, no matter the costs."
Her words died down as Billy reentered the room. She didn't want to make whatever this was hanging in the air between them worse by giving Ladon some big speech about her feelings on duties.So, instead, she reached out delicately for Ladon's hand and began to wrap each of the broken fingers to a stable, unbroken one next to it. She made sure the binding was secure, then began to wrap all four of his fingers together and secured it by wrapping it around his thumb a couple of times.
"I know only the two of those are broken, but the less mobile your entire hand is, the less jarred they'll be." She held the bandage in place with her finger and reached for the medical tape. She ripped a piece off and secured over the bandage, then smiled at Ladon in a 'you're finally done' sort of way, though it was empty.
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:19 am
While Kaia’s words were probably meant to be supportive and to show her loyalty to their cause, they were soured in the defensive captain’s mind, and he watched as she bound his hand, reminding himself that she was here to help and probably knew no better. Then again, she was a senshi. Side or not, he was more and more aware of the fact that she was.
“ For the greater good is a dangerous thing to say.” He said, his words a little sharper than he needed them to be. “Makes people animals fighting for what they think is right.” He looked over, narrowing those worn, sharp eyes. One failed, the glass cousin, failed to turn as violent green as it’s neighbor. “And that cost you so easy to say you’d give for what is good shouldn’t be something you are so comfortable saying. I’d rather see it than hear it.” It was far too defensive than it needed to be, and he watched as his hand was finished and he moved it away from her….a bit too quickly.
He looked away, cursing himself a moment. Everything’s fine, Ladon. You’re not making a good impression of that. He pretended to touch his brow. “Sorry. I’m a little tired.” He lied, and rose up, knowing that Billy would want to help him by wishing he would rest. “Thank you for helping me, Kaia.” He said, forcing a weak smile, playing the pathetic, weak, victim and noticing, with a sickening drop in his stomach, how both Kaia and Billy looked at him.
Turning, he moved into the bedroom that Billy was just in and went to lay down.
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:40 am
Something was off, but Billy couldn't be sure if it was his own meds or is he was just overreacting to things, as he'd been prone to do the last couple of weeks. If there was one thing he knew, Ladon was anything but weak. Having survived two weeks of inhumane treatment, torture, sleep deprivation, and food deprivation changed a person. And Ladon have come through all that alive. 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,' or so they say. No, it just deranges you. Blurrs the lines. There was no way he'd return completely to the Ladon Billy knew before. So while Billy wanted to be close, needed to be there, if only for his own peace of mind, he was also walking on eggshells. Wondering when the boy would finally go off.
Billy thought that if he did, and it was against him, then all the better. He deserved something for having brought this upon Ladon and the others. Somehow he didn't think that would happen though. When Ladon snapped, it would be significant. Catastrophic. For someone. And Billy had already decided that when that happened, he wouldn't react with hysterics, or negativity. He wouldn't reinforce it but...he'd be there.
He'd caught enough of the conversation on his way back to the room that finally made him realize that this was something he'd been thinking in the back of his mind all along. As Ladon left, Billy's first impulse was to follow, but he didn't. Those eggshells cracked beneath his feet. He...he had to fight his own urge, and maybe give the world a little benefit of the doubt .This was Ladon's apartment. He was safe within it's walls. So what if a room was between them? A Door?
It was easier said than done. Billy would...would find something to occupy himself with. Unless and until Ladon said he wanted him in there, beside him. He fought his internal panic. Faith. Faith. Have faith. You're here, at least. He isn't alone. He's here.
The look on Billy's own face was miserable. One could tell he didn't know what to do. It was in his eyes, and the tremble of his jaw. Finally he rose, and said to Kaia;
"I suppose I should escort you out?" Granted the door was right there, but it was the polite thing to do. And would occupy him, even for the short few seconds it took to send the senshi off.
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 2:11 pm
As Ladon pulled his hand out of Kaia's grasp and went on a tirade about something that had meant to be mostly comfort, the sympathy and kindness that Kaia had tried to express faded quickly. Her mouth set to a grim line and her amber eyes narrowed as surely as Ladon's had.
Yet, she said nothing. She understood that he was having a hard time and that after such a horrific event, he was entitled to time to heal both physically and mentally. That did not, however, stop her from finding it to be incredibly rude. She didn't have to come and help him, that wasn't in her job description as a Negaverse senshi. She'd done it out of loyalty to her companions and her cause.
She could have told him all the things she'd sacrificed, argued with him about how he wasn't the only soldier that ever suffered for their cause, but she decided against it. Two wrongs did not make a right, and at this point, she felt it was better to leave him to those that knew him best - they were barely acquaintances after all and for as much as he did not know her plight, she knew little of his apart from what she'd seen during the rescue.
She packed away the remainder of her things, closed the clasp of the bag, and looped it over her shoulder. As Billy stepped forward to offer to walk her to the door, she gave him a tight smile and simply shook her head.
"I can find my own way out, just do me a favor and make sure he doesn't forget the medication." She lingered a moment, as if she felt there was something supportive she should say to him; it was clear he, too, was suffering from this. In the end she simply nodded her head and disappeared past him, the way she had come in.
Then the door shut behind her, softly, and she was off to the next house call.
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