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 Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:09 pm
Anabel floated gently in the shallower end of the pool, staring up at the ceiling. Last night had been such a weird, terrible nightmare, only proven to be real by the itchy awareness of that necklace just out of sight. She seemed to feel that all she had to do is reach out and she would become Mistral Page again, but Finn’s warning sounded in her head whenever she thought about it--knights tended to attract trouble, and she did not need any.
Unlike Tallulah Cowden, who Anabel could see swimming laps like a demon possessed, Anabel was not getting better. Dr. Mendelssohn had been apologetic earlier that day when he said that she could expect maybe five to ten percent improvement in her muscle elasticity and tone, but not much more than that. And on the one hand, she hated everything, because she had followed the directions exactly, aside from going overboard maybe once or twice, and there had to be some kind of give, hadn’t there? On the other hand, she understood--medicine was an inexact science, and Anabel had not always been cooperative. She was going to get that ten percent, though, just see if she didn’t.
What did being a Knight--whatever that meant--even mean for her recovery process? She closed her eyes and kicked her feet, once, to move to a cooler area of the water. “Hey, Cowden,” she said, “where’s your hot med school boy toy?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:13 pm
Tallulah had paused in her lap swimming for the time being and kicked her way over to the recreation half of the pool, where Anabel Au floated. She had met the other girl five months previously, upon her return to Destiny City and starting physical therapy at the DCU pool. Initially they’d been at similar levels of ability, but where Tallulah was bouncing back and expected to make a full recovery… Anabel, to oversimplify things based only on what Tallulah had picked up, was not.
“You mean Nick?” she asked, treading water. “He’s got a lecture.” Did her boyfriend really spend so much time hanging out waiting for her to finish at the pool that his absence was conspicuous? Okay. Yes, and she was feeling sort of embarrassed about it now, all things considered. She’d gone three years without dating anyone, and suddenly she was part of not only a couple, but the kind of couple where people noticed when only one of them turned up somewhere and not the other.
Anyway, she was going to change the subject now, because seriously, she’d never planned to be that girl and she was not going to start now. “Is that a new wetsuit?” she asked conversationally. “I like the color.” Said the girl who had finally, reluctantly had to retire her Meadowview Swim and Dive suit, and was currently wearing the world’s most boring navy Adidas racing suit.
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:13 pm
“Yeah,” she said. “One of my friends just caught up with me, yeah? Or, well, he ran into me at work, and…” And he felt guilty for introducing her to the world of magical powers? And… he felt sorry for her for losing pretty much everything in her life, up to and including physical mobility and most of her favorite hobbies? Maybe it was just that they were friends. She shrugged. “He gets a discount at White River, and the swimsuit wasn’t doing much to help me out, as far as the… mess… goes.”
She’d only ever discussed her problems in generalities, just like Tallulah, and Anabel felt no particular need or desire to spell out exactly how wrong everything was underneath the surface. “Thanks. I thought it looked cute, anyway.” Black and purple. It reminded her a little of Mistral Page, now, and she sort of wished she’d gone for the white and green wetsuit in retrospect. But this one was better, because… more wearable.
“So how much longer are you here,” asked Anabel, folding her hands over her stomach. “What I’m asking is, you got some good news?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:14 pm
Tallulah nodded, thinking she might know which mutual friend Anabel meant, and leaned back to float beside the other girl. “Ah, right,” she said, not really commenting much further on Anabel’s scars beyond just agreeing. It just seemed like a faux pas to bring up. “Well, it looks good.” The colors were really cute - maybe she should get a more exciting bathing suit, Tallulah thought. They made them in all kinds of fun patterns she’d just never explored.
She’d had a checkup recently and basically gotten a clean bill of health, but Tallulah still didn’t feel 100%. She’d been in amazing shape before getting sick, and her doctor kept telling her that was an absolutely unrealistic expectation to get back to, but that just wasn’t good enough. “I think I’ll probably be done at the end of the school year,” she replied, stretching her arms out beside her body. “I was sick for a long time, but they say I’m through the worst.”
Not that her doctor had any understanding of what her illness had been caused by, and still fretted that she might relapse. She didn’t see that happening, but supposed anything was possible. It was a scary enough prospect that she hated taking time to consider it: Tallulah remembered what it felt like to be sick, and she didn’t ever want to go back to that.
“Are you- um,” She wasn’t sure how to ask without asking too much. “Are you doing better lately?” she asked.
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:14 pm
Anabel smiled at the ceiling, because two people floating were not going to see each other smile; it felt more sincere to just let it happen. Taking pleasure in little things, like a good-looking bathing suit, was part of what her therapist said she needed to do to really bounce back. Well, she was doing her utmost. “Glad to hear it. I’ll miss you around here, though.”
In a way, there was something clean to just being injured, even critically, in that there was no possible pathogen lurking about within Anabel. Nothing was waiting to get her once she got to her peak self, nothing hidden in her immune system to rear up and take her back down. To Anabel’s understanding, Tallulah’s problems were much more subtle. “I’m doing alright,” she said. “I feel better. But I’m not, you know.” She shrugged and shifted upright, wrung water out of her hair. “Sorry. Life’s distracting, and I had an attack last night, so it’s like, not exactly going the way anyone planned for it to.”
Yeah, she kind of envied Tallulah. But she was a nice person to envy.
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:15 pm
“Hey, I’ll still be around,” said Tallulah, reaching over to give Anabel a poke. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll probably still be at the pool every day. I used to swim competitively, and I’m having trouble letting that go.” She wasn’t going to be rejoining the DCU swim team any time soon - even if she got her times up, they wouldn’t take her. Not with her medical history.
“And we can hang out other times,” she added. Just because they’d met in a DCU-sponsored aqua therapy program didn’t mean they were limited to it. “I mean, we’ve got some friends in common, I’m sure.” DCU was a big state school, but it was small enough that everyone tended to run in the same social circles if your definition of social circle was broad enough. “Do you know Finn Derouen?”
She had a pretty solid idea that Anabel did, considering there were only so many people employed by White River Outfitters.
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:15 pm
Did she ever know Finn Derouen. That was a loaded ******** question to be sure; Anabel had, just last night, been chased by a monster with Finn Derouen, who was a valiant knight in dumb furs to be sure. She was a little envious of his boyfriend. “Yeah,” she said, “he’s a good friend.” With a smile at Tallulah, she wondered--did she know about Finn’s secret life as Babylon Knight of Mercury? God, she didn’t want to be alone as a… whatever a Page of Mercury was, but she didn’t want Tallulah to be in that kind of situation, either. One of them had to have a normal life, right? Because Anabel was really sure that her life was going to take a quick turn for the surreal once she managed to corner Finn again.
“So, you’re saying you’ll come hang with me even after you graduate from PT? Because I’d appreciate it. Dr. Mendelssohn is giving me no end of s**t. It is awful.” She really cannot cut anything active out. Not when she’s given up hiking, and skiing, and jogging in the mornings. “I don’t know what I’m going to do if you abandon me,” she teased, flopping sideways into the water.
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Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:17 pm
“Yeah,” agreed Tallulah, thinking about Finn carrying her unconscious body home the night her efforts to power through her illness had finally failed, and about all the good stories she’d heard about him from Andrea. “He is.” Guys like Finn Derouen were a rare breed, she thought. A special kind of self-sacrificing. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say anything bad about him.” Well, no. She’d heard him called immature plenty of times, and maybe that would have been a valid concern a year or two ago, but now it didn’t really seem to apply. Coming back to confront your issues, instead of just letting them fester was a really brave thing to do. He’d had the chance to make a clean getaway, and then he’d come back. Not many people would do that.
“Absolutely,” said Tallulah, standing up. “I mean, I don’t have any advice about your doctor, because I’m sure he’s got your best interests at heart? But I’ll still hang out.” She glanced towards the huge clock on the wall. “Anyway, I’ve got to get out if I’m going to make it to my anatomy lab on time. Do you want to race to the ladder? I’ll go easy on you.”
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