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 Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 7:13 pm
It was noon. According to the nurse who came in every quarter hour to check on the unconscious girl in the bed, tied up in tubes, Virgo was actually Elke, a fellow student at Crystal Academy. Thank goodness that Jada could pull off your typical cosplayer; the police were still giving her weird looks when she passed them in the halls. And yes, there were policemen outside Elke's door, waiting for her to wake up so they could harass her with questions.
She'd gotten from the nurses that Elke's family had been informed, but that was where the data ran dry. She was still too 'suspicious' and obviously not related; they simply couldn't tell her anything else about the girl. Basic health information came from the chart.
Elke was alive. That was the gist of it. And unless something dramatic happened, like her stitched bursting or something else hemorrhaging, she'd stay alive. Though when she'd wake up and/or recover was another matter.
Scylla had pulled back the dingy-looking curtains, figuring from what she knew of Virgo that the younger woman would appreciate the sunlight, or what there was of it. The view outside was the grey and dingy concrete of the next building over. From downstairs, she'd hesitantly purchased a stupid-looking bear animal with a small balloon that said 'Get Well Soon.'
She lay her head down on the bed (the only comfortable place in the room) and waited anxiously. Her stomach rumbled, hungry. And she yawned. She was exhausted.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:31 pm
Something was beeping, and it was really, really annoying. Elke's alarm didn't sound like that; her alarm sounded like the Spice Girls. And actually, judging by the light she could see through her eyelids, shouldn't she have been up already? She was going to be late, wasn't she?
Elke would have jolted up, but her hands felt funny. Actually, her entire body felt really, really heavy, like gravity had increased or something. Hero had always said that she lacked gravitas, and now it seemed like she had too much! With a quiet giggle--owww, her throat hurt!--she opened her eyes to a blurry ceiling. That was not the dorm ceiling. She knew that was not her dorm ceiling because her dorm ceiling did not have pretty dots on it. Nor was it shiny. Also, she could not hear the princess nearby, just that annoying beeping and--
Her gaze roved around the room for a moment. It kind of hurt! Actually, everything kind of hurt... her tummy especially. The events of the night before filtered back to her, slowly; leaving Crystal with Scylla, finding Nealite and Hematite in the park. Merope's snowball, smacking down the boomerang--
Oh no. "Scy? Scy!" Elke pushed herself up--or tried to, anyway, the pain in her side and her chest and her everywhere put her back down on the bed. It had been enough for her to catch that blue-tinted black hair, but her hands were still clenched and-- "Scy!" Her voice wasn't very loud; this was because her throat was very sore, and it hurt to talk.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 9:01 pm
She felt the hand under hers twitch and pushed up at the first moan of her name. It didn't sound like Virgo at all; her throat was probably sore due to the tubes she'd had last night and all the medicines she had pumping through her system right now.
"Shhh. Shhh. It's alright." Scylla sat up, helped her friend back down onto the bed. "Virgo." she whispered the name, smiled at Elke. "I'm here." she reached up, ran a hand over the dark hair. "It's good to see you awake." She sat on the edge of the bed. "I have to let someone know you are awake, okay? Don't push yourself. You were hurt pretty badly last night."
Leaning over, she pressed a button next to the bed. It would alert the nurses that there was an urgent matter in this room. Not even a minute later two nurses bustled in, delighted to see that Elke was awake. They took a few tests, asked Elke some questions.
Did she hurt? Where? What was her name?
They poked and prodded at Virgo gently, and through it all Scylla sat there like some sort of mother bear, grouching and growling whenever they produced any sound of pain from her friend.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:03 pm
Scy was okay. She calmed down only slowly, but seemed willing enough to lay back down. Ow. Ow, that had really hurt. Scy was okay, though, Elke had seen that. Could see that, even now. So she laid down, closed her eyes and let them poke at her--whimpering when they touched her chest or her side, the hand without the IV over her mouth. The questions were easy enough to answer; she had trouble with one, though.
"Elke," she answered, and then her brows furrowed. "No, I have two names--"
One of the nurses smiled. "Elke Arma, very good!"
No, that wasn't it, her other name was Virgo. Soldier Virgo. She frowned and looked to Scylla. Why wasn't she saying anything? Scy knew her other name, Scy could tell them--but then the nurses were gone, promising to come back. Elke wasn't sure she wanted them to, but it was a distraction that kept her from looking at where the needle disappeared into her flesh, so that was good. (She had been previously staring at it like she planned to pull it out--not a good thing by any account.)
"Are you okay," she asked. Her hoarse voice was very detached as she looked up at Scylla; after a long moment of staring, she reached for Scylla's hand. "Is Merope okay? How did I--"
She broke off, eyes wide. "There is a teddy bear," she informed Scylla.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:14 pm
"Elke," Scylla sat down on the edge of the bed, "There is a bear." She kept her voice very solemn. She picked up the bear, moved it closer to the other girl. "Hi Elke." she was a crappy ventriloquist. She set the bear down near the other girl.
"I don't know what happened to Merope, honestly." she didn't hide it, looked at Virgo. "You were hurt, badly. I was able to tangle up Nealite. I think I grabbed Hematite too, got him back from Merope in time to keep you from taking a third hit." She swallowed. "But I left him, Virgo. I took you, tangled up the enemy as best I could, and I got you here." she reached out, drew her hand down Elke's pale cheek.
The black-haired senshi sat back. "I think I answered most of the questions they'll ask. The policemen are going to want to talk to you, Elke." she tried to make sure she spoke as Elke paid attention. Not to overload her. "You know not to tell them your second name, right?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:36 pm
Her face lit up with delight as she moved her unrestrained arm (the iv was like a shackle, she reckoned) to pull the bear a little closer. "He's pretty," she said, examining the balloon and then smiling. Get Well Soon. Had Scylla bought this for her? She didn't recognize it, so it wasn't one of hers--which hopefully no one but her roommate would ever, ever see, Serenade was very very discreet about not telling the Captain about her stuffed animals.
"Thank you, Scy." Elke smiled, her expression trusting. That light didn't fade when her question was finally answered, just altered a little. "Oh, okay," she said; "I hope he's all right." She tried to lean into Scylla's hand, but that didn't quite work out for her. Huh.
The window caught her eye, the dust sparkling a little. Wow, how had she not noticed that before? It was so... sparkly and shiny. And--she tuned back in. "Did I do something bad?" Elke really, truly was worried about it; it was clear in the size of her green eyes, the sad little pout around her lips. And then, after a long wait, she smiled and said, "I'm being a secret agent, right? So I can't tell them who I really am, like a secret agent protecting the Princess." It took sincere effort to keep to English: After all, who knew that Scylla knew French? Only Scylla.
"Do you know if they called Papa," she asked, looking back towards the sparkling dust in the light from the window.
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:09 am
"I hope he's alright too." Scylla admitted. But hell, she had priorities, and Merope hadn't been it. She watched Elke in silence for a few moments while the girl's eyes focused in and out. It had to be hard for Elke to be thinking right now. She was still badly injured, and on so much pain meds it was amazing she remembered her own name.
"No sweetheart." It was easy for the affection to come, speaking to Virgo as she would to her own sister. "You haven't done anything bad. But you do need to remember. You are a secret agent. If anyone knows you're Virgo, it would be bad. Blow your cover." She nodded seriously.
"As for your Papa, they said they gave him a call." Jada smiled. "He'll be here soon for you. What you need to do for now Elke is sleep, okay?" she moved carefully, starting to try and pull the bear away. "I'll just set Mr. Bear on the table so you can see him."
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:25 am
She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, then nodded a little. "Don't tell anybody," she said, "I promise I won't. I'll be good. I will! I promise I'll be good." If she blew her cover, Scylla wouldn't like her anymore, and the Princess wouldn't like her anymore, and she'd never see Grayson or the Princess or Andeon or anyone ever again because they would think she was a stupid secret-teller. This was not something she wanted to happen, and so she repeated, earnestly, "I really won't tell anybody."
Because she wasn't Virgo! Right! (Even in her head, it sounded untrue. It sounded like a really bad lie.)
"Not soon." She frowned and stared at the ceiling like it had done something to personally offend her. "Papa is in France. That is where he works." This piece of information shared, she watched Scylla take away the bear. Elke could be irrational about any number of things, but right now--
Right now she was more worried about being alone. "You're not gonna go, are you, Scylla?" She seemed a little panicked, reaching for the older senshi's hand. "Please don't go. I'll sleep, I promise I will, don't leave me, please."
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:39 am
"I know you'll be good, Elke." she said, squeezed the other girl's hand. "I just want you to remember it is important." She sat down in the chair next to Elke's bed, having successfully appropriated the bear. Her mind was very calm right now. Virgo was awake.
"You'd told me you were born in France." She took a seat near the bed, reaching out to grip Elke's seeking hand. "Don't worry Elke, I won't leave until I have to. And when I have to I'll be back as soon as they let me. I won't leave you alone." she hastily assured the other girl.
She scooted her chair even closer to Elke's bed. "I'll stay right here, and when you wake up, you can tell me all about France. How does that sound?" She started stroking Elke's hair again, gently. The touch was methodical, careful. "And maybe you can teach me a few French words, so I can tell your Papa hello." Scylla spoke a few pieces of conversational french, but it would give Elke something to do when she woke up, until her father got here.
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:54 am
Okay. Everything was okay, Scylla wasn't leaving. Elke squeezed her friend's hand as tight as she could--nowhere near as tight as even Virgo's normal grip, it was even possibly classified as weak. She smiled, though, thinking about all the things she could tell Scylla. About-- about her house, and her bedroom at home, with the view of the diplomatic district, and sculpture with her mama, and learning how to write with her papa. There was a lot to say about France.
"You promise?" Elke's eyes were already closed, though, her voice slowing down a bit as she fell asleep. Whatever she was on made it easier than she had expected. So easy, in fact, even before she could hear the answer, Elke had fallen asleep, the rise and fall of her chest in a deep, even rhythm.
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