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 Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 8:41 am
"Three," She echoed, lifting Bereck with another huff. She'd lifted heavy things before, but Bereck was a solid man, dead weight, and thank goodness for all of the others assisting in getting him to the new bed. Rochelle wiped her hands on her work skirt and chewed at her lower lip, hard. This was not how Bereck was supposed to be.
Poor Aleck. Poor Whatever-Her-Name-Is, the apprentice Rochelle decided to dub Tiny. They both looked Unwell (and shards, even Jerk With A Heart Of More Jerk appeared to be somewhat disconcerted with the situation). Freckles calmed down too; despite the girl being a snarling wher of a red faced harpy, her lack of giving a shard kept her level headed with it all too.
Rochelle shuffled back a step, lips pulled into another quiet frown. She didn't stare at Aleck but rather his father, small thumbs hooked in the belt at her waist. These things sucked. Not knowing words to help sucked even more. There were too healers, any of her ideas would be useless in light of their (limited) experience.
"While Freckles and Tiny are getting your dad into tip-top shape again," she heard herself say, because they would. She kept her eyes on Bereck, even though her words directed themselves at Aleck. "Let me poke at your battle wounds, Aleck? 'M no healer but they've got things to do and I've helped with some stuff at Ista when apprentices got stupid with the blowtorches or shards of glass."
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 9:09 am
Becka smiled widely when 'reprimanded' by Bereck, he was starting to make more sense, that was good. She eyed the others that had helped move Bereck. "Hey guys, could you stay for a few moments?" she asked "I need to change those bandages on his back, he was laying in the blood and i need to check his wound isn't wet underneath" she said, her voice subdued. "So i need him turned so i can get to it, then he needs turning back so i can just double check the ones on his front, check that moving him didn't burst any of the stitches" she said "i....i did my best but i'm only an Apprentice... and the only one here, besides Cai now anyway" she added in a whisper. In truth she just wasn't very confident in her abilities, but she'd done the best she could in a bad situation. She didn't like the fighting, so many people getting hurt.. and for what?! .... some idea that their way was better....she sighed and busied herself with preparing the bandages and praying that Bereck was the worst they would get. She hoped Berath was alright... she thought so since Bereck was sort of alright.. she'd know if Berath went Between wouldn't she? ... from his reaction. She smiled softly at Aleck's gesture and wished she knew if her parents were alright, she wasn't close to either parent really, she barely knew her father and her mother was just a memory in and out of her life but she couldn't help but wonder if they were ok.
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 9:41 am
The healer's anecdote about Bant made her snort out a small laugh before she caught herself. Her cheeks darkened a moment and she hoped that no one had noticed. She ignored Carltis's suggestion as well, though she didn't move to change the canvas. If it was left there it's because she, and Becka to a degree, wanted it there! Instead she retreated quickly from the Master Healers side. She said she'd check on Becka's work but that would come after she'd seen to Berath. The young girl could probably handle herself long enough for that. She'd apparently done well enough so far. If not, Cai was just a shout away.
She didn't even look at the rest of the kids around Bereck's new cot as she turned and went through the door to the dragon's side, leaving it just slightly ajar. They all knew each other and knew their Master. She was an outcast, from a Weyr no one trusted anymore. They couldn't be faulted for the coldness they treated her with, but they would just have to learn right quick. She flushed again and resisted the urge to storm right back up to them as the words freckles and tiny just barely floated through the door. Squaring her shoulders she took in this other side. Berath was easy to spot being the only dragon there, and Cai was glad again to see a green before her.
The young healer approached the dragon slowly. From her back she didn't look too bad but there was ichor everywhere, a strange green replica of the red and brown stains on the other side of the door. She noted the tub of supplies resting on the floor, someone else had been in here already. "Berath? My name is Cai, I've come to check your wounds now that Master Bereck's been moved." She was getting tired of introducing herself but it couldn't be helped for now. You were always respectful to dragons.
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 11:20 am
[Berath]
Outside in the skies, and on the sand, battle was raging. Berath lurked in the huge cavern of the dragon infirmary, watching for anyone she knew and trying to keep in contact with Bereck. Why were the rebels doing this?... Well no, she knew, she just didn't know why they were doing it like this.
As the door to the human infirmary opened she turned her huge blocky head and watched the girl approach though her unbandaged eye, the facets swirling with yellow and grey. She wouldn't usually speak to a human she didn't know, but today was scarcely a normal day.
she went on after a pause, her mental voice heavy with pain and weariness. Repairing the triple layer would be time-consuming and very delicate work; not the sort of thing an apprentice should have to deal with even under the best of circumstances.
************
[Carltis]
Carltis watched Aleck stroke his father's hair and felt distinctly as if he shouldn't have; he was an interloper in the moment of tenderness, but apparently standing around like a useless d**k was what he was best at today so he carried on doing that, and feeling very awkward.
Oh, correction; standing around like a d**k, and lifting things.
He nodded to Becka. "Just tell me what to do.... Yeah, might be an idea for you to look at Aleck actually Rochelle. I cleaned him up as much as I could but he hasn't exactly been resting the shoulder." He might not be friends with them - with anyone - but they needed to stick together and look out for one another right now if they were going to get through this alive.
************
[Bereck]
Words and discussions floated around him, but they weren't important. What was important was Aleck, who was here, smoothing down his hair. Smiling weakly he tried to think of something to say, but nothing was coming to mind; everything was too hazy, clouded by pain and weakness to... to....
What?
battle wounds
Bereck's distant smile shifted to an expression of horror, and if it were possible his complexion got worse. "You're hurt!" He tried to sit up, sickening panic joining the confusion, and overwhelming whatever sense he'd had until now.
"I'm sorry!"
The wher. He had heard Aleck outside. Had to take the wher down, or it would hurt Aleck.
He had failed.
"I'm so sorry Aleck, I tried!" The words came out choked, and ignoring the pain he kept trying to rise, to reach his son, to make everything alright again. This was his fault, he should have been stronger, should have been able to keep Aleck safe! Tears started to well up in the healer's bright blue eyes, and his breath came in shorter and sharper gasps.
He hadn't been enough, wasn't ever enough, but this failure was so much worse than any other. This was Aleck.
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Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2012 2:26 pm
Becka was relieved when Cai left to go and see to Berath. With the dragon being taken care of, Bereck could only improve... hopefully. She was about to answer Carltis when Bereck cried out and shot up. "Bereck NO!" she cried herself, closing her eyes momentarily, imagining all sorts of terrible scenarios, most involving stitches bursting all over the place. "Master Bereck, you have to lay down, you're hurt.... Aleck is alright.... he's ok... Master.... please..."... she said, trying to push him back down. "You did try, you stopped the Wher from hurting him too badly but PLEASE Master Bereck... lie down, you're going to tear all your stitches" she said, close to hysterical, tears springing to her eyes again. "Someone help me keep him down before he tears them and bleeds out all over again" she said, sobbing.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:10 pm
He'd be okay. Really. Bereck was already sounding more coherent, and though Aleck knew these might be lies he was telling himself, they were keeping his head above water. "Good idea," he mumbled with a quick glance up at Rochelle, the corner of his mouth twitching up in response to Ber- wait. Wait what was that expression he could feel being confusedly mirrored by his own fac-
"Dad!" Aleck started, reaching out to lay hands on.. on.. this was a problem, so he hovered. "Dad it's okay, really, it doesn't hurt-"
His father was crying, an action Aleck had hitherto never witnessed from his stoic parent. That, and the fact that this was happening in front of a group of relative strangers, made the brunet very uncomfortable. When Beck burst into tears he cast a look at her, hunching his shoulders, and did his best to ignore her and keep his voice calm. "They were joking, Dad, it's a scratch, I'm fine-" Lies, all lies, but he needed them right now.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:26 pm
"I thought s--" And Bereck flipped his crap, seriously. All the flipping and then the apprentice. Had the entire infirmary gone insane? All of it? (Who knew she'd miss Freckles for, like, two seconds in this chaos. The girl probably didn't know how to cry.)
(Rochelle judged people.)
(A lot.)
"Carltis," Rochelle reached out for Tiny - becka, right - and glanced at the large weyrbrat. "Help Aleck. Bereck, honestly, you know I talk random wherrie crap, all the time but, yeesh. You,Tiny. With me. Right now."
She tugged the younger woman* away from the wounded Healer, her head shaking. She could understand the panic of seeing a father figure being sick and being all but helpless in front of you. It sucked. It was horrible. This was not the time to break over it. Her foot throbbed, a man she respected lay there bleeding and hallucinating, and two guys she grew up with for a bit decided to be all... huge. Not to mention Freckles.
Rochelle got them a decent distance away from the men, her voice lowered into a soft hiss."Okay, look, sweetheart. This sucks, he's bleeding and half of the people with you are complete jerks. I know what it's like to have someone you care about be effed up but you need to breathe and stop panicking, right now. Okay?"
... did she need a hug? Did hugs work?
(*All actions with Roche pulling Becka away has been approved in advance with Revel. <3)
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:58 pm
[Carltis]
Well s**t.
Now what?
Feelings! Why did all these damn people have to have so many damn feelings? More to the point, why did he have to care rather than just giving a disgusted snort and stalking off to leave them to it?
For a few moments he considered pinning the healer down. He could, no question, just sit on his knees and shove his shoulders down; Bereck was a fairly stocky man but he was weak right now, and a lot smaller than Carltis in any case. As Rochelle told him to help he dithered for a moment, and then decided that holding down would probably just make the man panic more; he knew he wouldn't be much of a fan of being pinned down by somebody much bigger than himself at any time, let alone when apparently completely out of his head.
Instead of shoving the healer back down therefore he moved to kneel beside the bed and supported him carefully, trying to put his hands on the man's back and shoulders where the injuries weren't. "He's fine," he said gruffly, "nothing a bit of cleaning and numbweed won't fix. You did fine." The man had got shredded, but under the circumstances that was actually a reasonable outcome so it wasn't a lie per se.
**********
[Bereck]
He registered Becka crying, and that meant that something was bad. He hadn't done enough. He wasn't blind, he could see the bandages now - why hadn't he seen them before? - and you didn't bandage a scratch like that. Had to be a significant wound, and whether from teeth or claws the chance of it getting infected was high. Because he hadn't been enough. He had to fix it, get the wounds clean, perfectly, meticulously, and put on salves and dressings and bandages.
He didn't hear what the big weyrbrat said, his head was full of the rapid thump of his pulse and pain and panic. He wasn't even really aware that the boy was holding him up, just that it got easier to get close to his boy.
With tears running down his face he reached out with trembling arms to pull Aleck into a weak, protective embrace. " 'm sorry," he mumbled again, some of the hysteria fading now he was close. "Did my best. Always. Not enough. Love you. Like my dragon, I love you. 'm sorry I.... should've done more." A staccato breath came at the end of each short sentence and when he finished speaking he squeezed his eyes shut, keeping his feeble hold on Aleck as every instinct screamed through the haze to keep him safe.
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Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 6:39 pm
This was odd, like having a total stranger over for dinner uninvited.
Well. Maybe not a total stranger. More like a casual acquaintance who somehow, in the course of one evening, had learned all your embarassing family and personal secrets and was now being shown photos of the years you were young enough to be clothes-optional. What could they do, return the favor?
Aleck found himself caught between two impulses: one to hide his vulnerable emotions from Carltis, who he didn't know well at all yet now had a rather intimate picture of him, and one to be what his father needed - open, candid, honest, and his son. There wasn't a middle ground, or any way to separate them out, although his 'if I don't look at her, maybe she'll stop crying' strategy seemed to have worked with Becka and the Benden girl had disappeared too. Pulled into the weak, awkward embrace, Aleck found himself inhaling a whiff of blood and numbweed as his nose pressed into the healer's shoulder.
"It's.. it's okay, Dad," he managed, working past the lump in his throat. He couldn't return the hug; his good arm was propping him up, but he twitched the fingers of his bad arm and brushed at Bereck's arm. "Dad. It's fine, you.. I l've you," he muffled into the bandages, at a loss for anything else that could help. Wary blue eyes checked Carltis over the healer's shoulder, then lowered again. "Y' l've me. S'enough. Dad. Okay?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:30 am
Becka was still panicking, she was highly stressed right now but Bereck was hugging Aleck and wasn't flailing.... ok Becka could deal with that right?!....Carltis was holding him up, that was better than him trying to sit up by himself. It was unexpected though, Carltis... helping the man hug his son.
She almost squealed when a hand pulled her away but there was no one bad here... yet, instead she just stared at the Glasscrafter. "My name... is Becka.. not Tiny" she mumbled. She didn't really look up at Rochelle "What do you expect me to do? .... even if he wasn't my master, i'm just not ready for what i just did with him, Shards... he could get infection ..... internal bleeding... burst his stitches and bleed out again and he probably hasn't got much left to lose" she said, in a forced whisper trying not to worry Aleck. "I barely know what i'm doing... " her voice cracked again "there's no Journeymen... no Masters... just ME.. i'm doing what i can and it's just not good enough, i'm only an apprentice" she paused "Shaffit, if anyone else comes in like Bereck ... i don't know what the shards i'm going to do" she blinked away tears, Rochelle was right.. she needed to pull herself together but right now, she was thinking of all the things that could go wrong... and all the things that could happen to Bereck because of her limited skills.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:43 am
"I'm not going to remember your name. Sorry. Not yours or Freckles," Rochelle handwaved Becka's statement. She stopped herself from heaving a sigh at her, closed her eyes for a slow sigh. Right. The girl looked barely old enough to think about a serious apprenticeship and she was terrified. Overwhelmed.
Right. She needed to be empathetic.
"Deal with it." Not what she meant to say. Oops. Rochelle opened her eyes to look at the girl. Resolve steeled, she straightened her shoulders. "You're young, and I get that. This situation is horrible. You're not going to get me telling you everything will be okay because it's probably a lie. But if you don't pull yourself together right now, he will die. You using what you know will keep him alive. Your hysterics make everything worse. Now use your gentle voice and get to work being an adult, even if you aren't one. Put on your big girl panies; you don't have a choice right now."
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:07 pm
"Deal with it."
Becka stared at Rochelle ..... SLAP ..... Becka's hand lashed out and slapped Rochelle on the cheek, Instantly Becka was horrified "I'm sorry!... i'm so sorry i didn't mean......" She cringed a little "It's just... everything's so messed up.... i..." she couldn't say anything, she was frozen in shock. She couldn't believe she slapped the other girl, after all she'd only been trying to help. "i.. i just... i CAN do my job" she said, frowning ever so slightly as she absorbed what else the other girl had said. "I DID my job .. and some" she added, losing a little of her fear and hysterics. She was actually, WAY deep down, Mildly insulted that the girl had just implied that she wasn't doing her job right.. shards.... "I'm TRYING my best OK!" she snapped, and again, regretted it. This wasn't like her at all, usually she was quiet, meek, nervous of how others though of her but the day's events, that were actually, still going on, had really frayed on her nerves, she'd done major work on someone bleeding to death, been shouted at, insulted by another Apprentice from BENDEN of all Weyrs and now this girl had told her to Deal with it! Becka just couldn't hold it all in anymore.
(slap, approved by Nozomi through PM's)
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 2:17 pm
[Bereck]
It wasn't enough, of course it wasn't, but that Aleck thought it was made things a little better. "Mmh," he said, tears slowing but words not forthcoming. He rested his head on Aleck's good shoulder, eyes still closed, breath becoming less sharp and strained as he relaxed a little more though it remained shallow and rapid, and he was still trembling like a man half frozen.
SLAP
At the unmistakable sound of skin striking skin Bereck's head jerked up; he didn't hear what had been said afterwards, or even see who had hit who, but just at the moment he didn't care for details. "Girls! That is enough!" Raising a shaking hand he wiped his eyes - he'd been crying? - and tired to focus on Rochelle and Becka. "You will not fight in this," breath, breath, sharp and short again, "in this infirmary. Not. Acceptable. Ever!" The effort of such vehemence left him feeling even weaker than before, and he was somewhat surprised that he hadn't collapsed.... Calrtis was holding him up. He had a worrying feeling that he had recently made a total fool of himself.
*******
[Carltis]
...Yeah this was awkward.
When Aleck glanced at him he averted his gaze, doing his best to be deaf. The idea of a horde of rebel fighters to take on single handedly was starting to look pretty attractive compared to this. He didn't know how to deal with this, how to be a decent empathic person that knew what the hell to say and do.
For the time being he just kept supporting the master healer's weight, looking over at Rochelle and the apprentice healer partially in the hope that the latter might give him some direction or something, and partially so as not to look at Aleck or Bereck. He couldn't exactly give privacy, but he could at least refrain from staring.
This decision meant that he saw the impressive crack across the face the young healer gave Rochelle. His eyebrows raised; some spirit in there after all was there? He wondered if Rochelle would hit her back or-
-Ah. Maybe not, least not if the man he was holding up had anything to say about it. He looked down at Bereck, over at the two young women, and then at Aleck. For the time being he kept his mouth shut because he knew if he didn't he'd probably just shove his foot in it.
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:10 pm
This is what you get for being nice. That sort of thing was why she was never nice. It meant getting hit in the sharding face by some crybaby apprentice who instantly started apologizing.
What.
And as much as she respected and liked Bereck, his breathless snapping meant little to her at that moment. Rochelle felt the sting of a hand on her cheek, and saw freaking. Red. She stared at Tiny and her jaw clenched tight, small hands balling into tight little fists. The mantra of 'do not hit her back do not hit her back' played through her head at the same breakneck speed of 'PUNCH HER IN THE THROAT'.
At any time, she would have indeed punched her in the throat. Fists to face probably should have occurred and more than once she'd kneed someone in the stomach until they puked. But this was a revolution. This was a fight. They were to fight against the other side, not each other.
She grabbed the other girls wrist, of the hand that slapped her, and yanked Becka in very close. She leaned in, full lips peeled back into a snarl full of bright teeth, blue eyes narrowed and dark and full of threats.
"If you touch me again, I will end you," She hissed, head tilting so they were nose to nose. "Stop making excuses and get your skinny a** over there to heal him before I shove my boot up your a**." The last few words, she said in a growl, fingers tightening even more on the other woman's wrist. "Now."
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Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:25 pm
Becka baulked at Rochelle's reddening face, all bravado and temper instantly banished and she was scared. Then... Bereck 'yelled' at her, she leapt away from Rochelle but not before the girl had grabbed her wrist, now Becka was truly frightened but at the same time, she wasn't about to just scurry off and do as she was 'told' "Then who'd look after everyone?" she said quietly, staring at Rochelle "I'll look at your foot later" she said, she'd noticed the limp "There's nothing much i can do for Bereck now besides fix any stitches... are YOU willing to break him and his son apart just to interfere?" she said and before Rochelle could say anything else she turned her back on the girl and went over to the bedside "Master Bereck, Aleck will be alright but i need to check your stitches" she said, fighting to stay in control of herself and not cry again, for all her bravado and words, Rochelle WAS right, she needed to be strong for her patient, even if it was the man she saw as a father figure, she'd never really had one until Bereck and she didn't want to disappoint him "I'm sorry Bereck" she said very quietly, in regards to the slap she'd dealt Rochelle.
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